Synthesizing of Blue-light Blocking Polymeric Materials and Manufacturing Contact Lenses

Purpose : Blue-light blocking polymers were synthesized and interpenetrated into the hydrogel contact lenses. The water contents and blue-light blocking properties of the resultant contact lenses with varying amounts of the blue-light blocking polymers were investigated and compared to that of the unmodified control.Methods : Polyethyleneimine (PEI) was covalently conjugated with blue-light adsorbing reactive dyes (Procion Yellow MX8G) via a nucleophilic substitution reaction and incorporated into the hydrogel contact lenses. The blue-light blocking properties of the hydrogel lenses were investigated using UV-vis spectrophotometry.Results : The blue-light adsorbing reactive dyes were successfully conjugated to the PEI and well incorporated into the hydrogel contact lenses. The resultant contact lenses exhibited good blue-light blocking properties according to the results of the UV-vis spectra investigation. Furthermore, we confirmed that the blue-light adsorbing dyes were not eluted from the contact lenses after extensive washings for 3 days.Conclusion : This report describes the synthesis and characterization of a series of hydrogel contact lenses containing blue-light blocking polymers. The hydrogel contact lenses showed good water contents and a transmittance of over 90% in the range of 450~700 nm. In particular, the blue-light blocking properties at the range of 380~450 nm were enhanced significantly as the increment in the amount of incorporated blue-light blocking polymers. The preparation of blue-light-blocking contact lenses may offer a new opportunity for the development of biomedical ophthalmic devices.