Endogenous Therapeutic Agents for Acute Corneal and Ocular Surface Injuries. Transl Vis Sci Technol 2026 Mar 02;15(3):16
Date
03/18/2026Pubmed ID
41848373Pubmed Central ID
PMC13007564DOI
10.1167/tvst.15.3.16Scopus ID
2-s2.0-105033634837 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)Abstract
Acute corneal injuries vary greatly in morbidity, but can cause severe cases of vision loss. Among these injuries are mechanical corneal traumas and acute chemical burns. The current standard of care in the acute phase of management is aimed at reducing the offending agent, pain management, and infection prevention; however, corneal scarring and limbal stem cell deficiency may result even after the acute management of severe corneal injuries. In the most serious cases, surgical intervention, including cornea or stem cell transplantation, may be required to restore functional vision. As such, there is a great need for additional therapies in the acute phase of management that can help to reduce long-term, vision-reducing outcomes. Certain endogenous agents have emerged as a therapeutic class that may be used for the promotion of corneal wound healing with the goal of reducing the odds of requiring invasive surgery. In this review, we provide an overview of novel endogenous therapeutic agents for the treatment of acute corneal trauma and acute chemical burns. The endogenous therapeutic agents explored include amnion, exosomes, stem cells, platelet-rich plasma, peptides, growth factors, and umbilical cord serum. The results of these studies indicate encouraging potential for endogenous agents to facilitate corneal recovery and vision preservation. However, because many of these agents are in the early stages of development and clinical trials, further research is required to understand their efficacy in the clinical setting.
Author List
Reinhardt C, Ong J, Son KN, Aakalu VKAuthor
Vinay Kumar Aakalu MPH, MD Chair, Professor in the Ophthalmology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Acute DiseaseAmnion
Animals
Burns, Chemical
Corneal Injuries
Exosomes
Eye Burns
Humans
Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins
Platelet-Rich Plasma
Wound Healing
