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However, shortage of donor corneas and safety issues in performing corneal transplantation are the main limitations. Accordingly, we adopted the injectable in situ-forming hydrogels of collagen type I crosslinked via multifunctional polyethylene glycol (PEG)-N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) for treatment and evaluated in vivo biocompatibility. The New Zealand White rabbits (N\u2009=\u200920) were randomly grouped into the keratectomy-only and keratectomy with PEG-collagen hydrogel-treated groups. Samples were processed for immunohistochemical evaluation. In both clinical and histologic observations, epithelial cells were able to migrate and form multilayers over the PEG-collagen hydrogels at the site of the corneal stromal defect. There was no evidence of inflammatory or immunological reactions or increased IOP for PEG-collagen hydrogel-treated corneas during the four weeks of observation. Immunohistochemistry revealed the presence of \u03b1-smooth muscle actin (\u03b1-SMA) in the superior corneal stroma of the keratectomy-only group (indicative of fibrotic healing), whereas low stromal \u03b1-SMA expression was detected in the keratectomy with PEG-collagen hydrogel-treated group. Taken together, we suggest that PEG-collagen may be used as a safe and effective alternative in treating corneal defect in clinical setting.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-021-03270-3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,13]],"date-time":"2021-12-13T11:04:31Z","timestamp":1639393471000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["In vivo biocompatibility evaluation of in situ-forming polyethylene glycol-collagen hydrogels in corneal defects"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Yoon Hong","family":"Chun","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sun-Kyoung","family":"Park","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eun Jeong","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hyun Jong","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hyewon","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Won-Gun","family":"Koh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gabriella Fernandes","family":"Cunha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"David","family":"Myung","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kyung-Sun","family":"Na","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"3270_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e1221","DOI":"10.1016\/S2214-109X(17)30393-5","volume":"5","author":"SR Flaxman","year":"2017","unstructured":"Flaxman, S. 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