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Article History

Received: 4 July 2023

Accepted: 20 February 2024

First Online: 14 March 2024

Declarations

:

: Tampere University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, has the approval of the National Authority Fimea (Dnro FIMEA/2020/003758) to conduct research on human embryos. The research group also had supportive statements from the Regional Ethics Committee of the Expert Responsibility area of Tampere University Hospital to derive, culture and differentiate hESC lines (R05116), to establish and use hiPSC lines in ophthalmic research (R16116), and to use human donor corneas unsuitable for transplantation for research purposes (R11134). No new hESC lines were derived for the research conducted here. The rat corneas used in this study were acquired from medical teaching lab and they were already sacrificed for medical teaching purposes performed in Tampere University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology under appropriate licenses from the National Project Authorization Board. Euthanasia was performed separate from animal housing in dedicated rooms with automated CO² chambers designed for rats. The porcine corneas used in this study were acquired from the local abattoir as a side product and were thus not the sole reason for animal sacrifice.

: Not applicable.

: PG, TI and HS are co-inventors of a pending patent transferred from Tampere University (Tampere, Finland) to StemSight Ltd (Tampere, Finland) regarding the cell production technology used herein. AM is an inventor of a patent application related to the bioink described in this study. Based on the Act on the Right in Inventions made at Higher Education Institutions in Finland, all authors employed by Tampere University have given all rights to the University and thus have declared no competing interests. AM, TI and HS are co-founders, shareholders and employees in StemSight Ltd.