Mahendra ChhabraGraduate Student, Ph.D. ProgramIndian
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Research Summary: Oxygen Transport through Cornea and Soft Contact Lens: Lens
Characterization and Metabolic Modeling Cornea is an avascular tissue. It needs environmental oxygen to sustain the metabolic processes critical for normal function of the eye. Wearing a soft contact lens (SCL) on the eye impedes oxygen supply from the air during the day and from the palpebral conjunctiva (the tissue in the posterior surface of the upper eyelid) during sleep. This mass-transfer impediment may lead to insufficient oxygen supply to the cornea (hypoxia), especially for extended wear of SCLs (up to 30 days and nights of continuous wear). Hypoxia leads to a number of health complications, including corneal swelling, corneal acidosis and loss of corneal transparency. This is the driving force for research in development of hypertransmissible silicone-hydrogel soft contact lens. The goal of my project is two-fold. Firstly, since there is no existing reliable and efficient technique to measure oxygen permeability of hypertransmissible silicone-hydrogel SCLs, we are working on a design of an apparatus based on polarographic technique to measure oxygen permeability of these SCLs. We also plan to measure oxygen diffusivity and solubility of silicone-hydrogel lenses to determine structure-property relationship by using various characterization techniques (SAXS, SANS, etc). Secondly, there is lack of fundamental understanding of relationship between hypoxia and corneal cellular metabolism. We want to understand this relationship by doing metabolic modeling of cornea-contact lens system. This work is also useful in providing understanding of ocular disease such as dry eye syndrome, drug delivery through contact lens and applicability of artificial corneas. |
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