{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T07:03:24Z","timestamp":1774940604074,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1774915200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The pentose-initiated Maillard reaction may serve as an oxygen-independent, non-enzymatic crosslinking (CxL) mechanism, but its slow kinetics limit clinical applicability. We hypothesize that glycation-mediated CxL can be accelerated by reactive oxygen species (ROS), potentially enabling its use in the treatment of keratoconus.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Rabbit corneal buttons were exposed to 20% ribose and irradiated with femtosecond oscillator laser pulses at 450\u00a0mW (1,069\u00a0nm) and 250\u00a0mW (400\u00a0nm). In addition to laser-based light sources, a 365\u00a0nm UVA lamp at 3\u00a0mW\/cm\n                      <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                      was used in combination with either ribose or riboflavin-5-phosphate to generate comparison and control groups. ROS-Glycation-CxLed corneas were flattened with a glass coverslip to minimize oxygen replenishment. Crosslinking efficacy was assessed using 5\u00a0\u00b5m micro-indentation to measure the equilibrium modulus and viscoelastic ratio post-treatment.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Corneal tissues subjected to ROS-glycation-CxL exhibited a significant increase in equilibrium modulus. The modulus change in ribose-exposed tissues treated with UVA light was comparable to that observed with the conventional UVA\u2013riboflavin CxL pathway. In contrast, infrared and blue laser-treated samples showed less stiffening, likely due to the limited tissue volume affected by the laser\u2019s focal region. Notably, only the UVA\u2013riboflavin-treated tissues demonstrated a pronounced elastic load-relaxation response.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>ROS-Glycation-CxL offers a potential alternative to existing crosslinking techniques, with crucial advantages such as reduced oxygen reliance, light-source agnostic mechanism, and customizable treatment patterns with laser light sources. Further investigation is needed to evaluate the clinical viability of ROS-glycation CxL through optimization of sugar concentration, treatment duration, and assessment of stromal extracellular matrix ultrastructure.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fbioe.2026.1695384","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T05:32:28Z","timestamp":1774935148000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Reactive oxygen species accelerated glycation for oxygen-independent corneal cross-linking"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Jiashuai","family":"Fan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University","place":["New York, NY, United States"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sinisa","family":"Vukelic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University","place":["New York, NY, United States"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"216","DOI":"10.1016\/j.actbio.2017.11.015","article-title":"The hierarchical response of human corneal collagen to load","volume":"65","author":"Bell","year":"2018","journal-title":"Acta Biomater."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1660","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jcrs.2016.06.040","article-title":"Nonlinear optical corneal collagen crosslinking of ex vivo rabbit eyes","volume":"42","author":"Bradford","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. 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