3D Printing Strategies for Bioengineering Human Cornea
Yuan Y., Lim KS., Sutton G., Wallace GG., You J.
Narrative Review, published in Adv Healthc Mater (2026) — summary generated from the PubMed abstract.
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
- Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
- Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
- Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
- Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
- Emerging · Emerging topic under active research
This page is generated from the PubMed record. The Thai description is an automated summary of bibliographic fields and the abstract, not a full translation, and is not medical advice.
- Study type
- Narrative Review
- Journal
- Adv Healthc Mater (2026)
- Reported sample size
- —
- Source database
- Europe PMC
- PMID
- 41039782
- PMCID
- PMC12988584
- DOI
- 10.1002/adhm.202502767
- Citations
- 2
Abstract (original English)
Over 4.2 million people worldwide suffer from vision impairment related to corneal diseases, with the shortage of donor corneas limiting surgical interventions. The development of 3D printing provides a promising solution for corneal tissue engineering, offering precise control over dimensionality, structural organization, and cell-matrix interactions. The choice of biomaterials and printing strategies critically determines the properties of 3D-printed corneal constructs. While prior reviews have summarized general bioinks and techniques, few have addressed cornea-specific benchmarks such as transparency, curvature, and mechanical robustness. This review provides a comprehensive discussion on the current study of 3D printed cornea, with a focus on replicating the biomechanical and optical properties of native human cornea. Key limitations in current fabrication methods are outlined, and recent advancements in 3D bioprinting technologies-many of which have been successfully applied in other tissue engineering contexts-are reviewed for their potential in producing anisotropic, multilayered corneal constructs with high resolution and fidelity. 3D printing human cornea is believed to have strong potential in generating scalable and clinically relevant solutions to overcome the global donor cornea tissue shortage, and 3D printing holds a central role in their development.
What this study does not prove
- • This study does not prove SVF is an approved treatment or a replacement for standard care.
- • This is a narrative review: it collects no new patient data and does not systematically appraise evidence quality.
Evidence level
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
How we grade evidenceBrowse all related research
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