Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Research Article

The Effect of In-Vivo Collagen Cross-Linking Procedure on the Material of Intracorneal Ring Segments

¹Eye Institute of Thrace, Democritus University, Alexandroupolis, Greece

²Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas / Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences (FORTH/ICE-HT), Patras, Greece

³Turkiye Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

Corresponding Author:

Haris Sideroudi
Eye Institute of Thrace
1^st building of Medical School
Democritus University of Thrace
Dragana-Alexandroupolis P.O. 68100, Greece
Tel: +302551039891
Fax: +302551039891
E-mail: harissid@alex.duth.gr

Received date:: September 29, 2015; Accepted date:: November 20, 2015; Published date:: November 27, 2015

Citation: Sideroudi H, Labiris G, Soto-Beobide A, Perente I, Voyiatzis G, et al. (2015) The Effect of In-Vivo Collagen Cross-Linking Procedure on the Material of Intracorneal Ring Segments. J Biotechnol Biomater 5:209. doi:10.4172/2155-952X.1000209

Copyright: © 2015 Sideroudi H, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The material of Intracorneal Rings Segments (ICRS) has seemed to be polymerized after the absorption of Riboflavin and UV illumination in laboratory settings. This study aimed to assess the potential impact of in-vivo corneal crosslinking (CXL) on the chemical composition of ICRS. Within this contex, three ICRS samples (S1, S2 and S3) were extracted from patients' cornea, which formerly had undergone CXL treatment. Alterations on the chemical structure of PMMA rings were studied using Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy and Fourier Transform-Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. An extracted ICRS from a patient who didn’t underwent CXL treatment, was also used as reference (S0). UV-Vis spectroscopy didn't identify any change in the specimens S1, S2 and S3. Nevertheless, FT-IR spectroscopic analysis showed alterations in the spectra of ICRS material of samples S1, S2 and S3, mainly at the 2800 to 3200 cm-1 spectral region [modification in band intensities of CH2 (2850 cm-1 and 2925 cm-1) and CH3 (2950cm-1)]. In conclusion, our results suggest crosslinking reaction in ICRS material after in-vivo CXL treatment. This should be taken into consideration prior to any CXL treatment of post ICRS implanted cornea.

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