Following surgery or trauma to the comeal epithelium, the repair of damage to the cell layers is essential for the maintenance of normal visual acuity. Evidence suggests that epithelial wound healing consists of two phases:​ an initial latent phase during which the cells are transformed from quiescence to an active state, followed by a healing phase during which cell migration occurs to effect wound closure and cell mitosis restores the epithelial cell density to unwounded levels.

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) has been shown to increase the rate of comeal wound healing for a variety of wound types. In most cases, EGF has been delivered to the healing cornea in the form of topical eyedrops. It is well known that this does not represent an optimal means of drug delivery. Furthermore, the properties of EGF, as well as its known effects, suggest that prolonged delivery of the peptide such as would be achieved using a polymeric drug delivery system may enhance its wound healing potential. However, due to the complexities of wound healing, and the different effects of EGF on the various processes that constitute wound healing, an optimal EGF therapeutic regimen is unknown and difficult to determine experimentally.

In this work, a mathematical model was developed to describe the wound closure phase of the healing process in the cornea. The model accounts for EGF-mediated cell migration and cell mitosis, and includes such cell properties as the cell cycle time. Endogenous and exogenous EGF sources were included. Ail necessary model parameters were determined independently using in vitro and in vivo techniques. Model simulation results are in agreement with in vivo wound healing data. Optimal EGF therapeutic regimens were determined using model results.