Functional impairment of the human corneal endothelium can lead to corneal blindness. In order to meet the high demand for transplants with an appropriate human corneal endothelial cell density as a prerequisite for corneal function, several tissue engineering techniques have been developed to generate transplantable endothelial cell sheets. These approaches range from the use of natural membranes, biological polymers and biosynthetic material compositions, to completely synthetic materials as matrices for corneal endothelial cell sheet generation. This review gives an overview about currently used materials for the generation of transplantable corneal endothelial cell sheets with a special focus on thermo-responsive polymer coatings.

Fluorocarbon films with an exceptionally high CF ₂ content were obtained by plasma polymerization using a low pressure radio frequency discharge operated with a mixture of argon and tetrafluoroethylene. Substrates were placed in a remote position downstream the discharge. Gas pressure, discharge power, substrate position, gas composition and substrate temperature were changed to alter the chemical structure of the plasma polymers. The properties of the films were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), spectroscopic ellipsometry and contact angle goniometry. A pronounced increase of the CF ₂ content was obtained for elevated substrate temperatures and increased amounts of tetrafluoroethylene in the process gas. Applied as a model surface in studies of interfacial phenomena on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), transparent PTFE-like thin films enable the use of numerous optical techniques not applicable to common PTFE foils.