Fish- skin derived collagen as additive in tissue engineering scaffolds

Introduction

Collagen plays a crucial role in tissue engineering (TE) due to its fundamental properties and widespread presence in the extracellular matrix. In additional to providing structural support to tissues, collagen also contains cell adhesion domains promoting cell growth and differentiation, ideal for TE scaffolds. Fish skin collagen is gaining prominence as a sustainable biomaterial extracted from marine wastes and safe alternative to mammalian collagen due to minimal disease transmission risks, low religious constraints, biocompatibility. and easy biosorption in humans. This study exploits the potential of collagen from Skipjack Tuna fish as a bioactive material for skin TE.

Methods

The defatting and depigmentation of fish skin were performed in sodium hydroxide and butanol followed by acid soluble collagen extraction in acetic acid, and a precipitation method was conducted using sodium chloride. The sample was dialysed, lyophilised, and characterized. The collagen was further used an additive in hydrogel and electrospun scaffolds. Human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) and mouse macrophages (RAW 264.7) were grown on the scaffolds with and without collagen and fixed for SEM imaging.

Results & Discussion

This extraction method yielded 10.02 ± 2.69 % of collagen from fish skin with a high hydroxyproline content of 14.42 ± 0.11 %. The FTIR spectrum showed the presence of amide bands A, B, I, II, and III, and SDS PAGE depicted the presence of α, β, and γ chains pertaining to collagen. SEM images showed the higher proliferation of HDFs on mats containing collagen compared to those without collagen. Collagen did not improve HDFs’ adhesion on hydrogels which proliferated as spheroids. Macrophages adopted an inactivated M0 morphology on collagenous hydrogels compared to an amoeboid shape with pronounced pseudopodia on non-collagenous hydrogels indicative of reduced inflammation in collagen’s presence.

Conclusion

Overall, while fish-derived collagen was found to improve cell proliferation on electrospun mats, it also reduced inflammatory response in hydrogel scaffolds.