Health care and medicine were revolutionized in recent years by the development of biomaterials, such as stents, implants, personalized drug delivery systems, engineered grafts, cell sheets, and other transplantable materials. These materials not only support the growth of cells before transplantation but also serve as replacements for damaged tissues in vivo. Among the various biomaterials available, those made from natural biological sources such as extracellular proteins (collagen, fibronectin, laminin) have shown significant benefits, and thus are widely used. However, routine biomaterial-based research requires copious quantities of proteins and the use of pure and intact extracellular proteins could be highly cost ineffective. Gelatin is a molecular derivative of collagen obtained through the irreversible denaturation of collagen proteins. Gelatin shares a very close molecular structure and function with collagen and thus is often used in cell and tissue culture to replace collagen for biomaterial purposes. Recent technological advancements such as additive manufacturing, rapid prototyping, and three-dimensional printing, in general, have resulted in great strides toward the generation of functional gelatin-based materials for medical purposes. In this review, the structural and molecular similarities of gelatin to other extracellular matrix proteins are compared and analyzed. Current strategies for gelatin crosslinking and production are described and recent applications of gelatin-based biomaterials in cell culture and tissue regeneration are discussed. Finally, recent improvements in gelatin-based biomaterials for medical applications and future directions are elaborated. Impact statement In this study, we described gelatin's biochemical properties and compared its advantages and drawbacks over other extracellular matrix proteins and polymers used for biomaterial application. We also described how gelatin can be used with other polymers in creating gelatin composite materials that have enhanced mechanical properties, increased biocompatibility, and boosted bioactivity, maximizing its benefits for biomedical purposes. The article is relevant, as it discussed not only the chemistry of gelatin, but also listed the current techniques in gelatin/biomaterial manufacturing and described the most recent trends in gelatin-based biomaterials for biomedical applications.

Engineering and Functionalization of Gelatin Biomaterials: From Cell Culture to Medical Applications.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02991710/document

3D Extracellular Matrix Mimics: Fundamental Concepts and Role of Materials Chemistry to Influence Stem Cell Fate

Due to its unique properties, collagen is used in the growing fields of pharmaceutical and biomedical devices, as well as in the fields of nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, food and beverages. Collagen also represents a valid resource for bioplastics and biomaterials, to be used in the emerging health sectors. Recently, marine organisms have been considered as promising sources of collagen, because they do not harbor transmissible disease. In particular, fish biomass as well as by-catch organisms, such as undersized fish, jellyfish, sharks, starfish, and sponges, possess a very high collagen content. The use of discarded and underused biomass could contribute to the development of a sustainable process for collagen extraction, with a significantly reduced environmental impact. This addresses the European zero-waste strategy, which supports all three generally accepted goals of sustainability: sustainable economic well-being, environmental protection, and social well-being. A zero-waste strategy would use far fewer new raw materials and send no waste materials to landfills. In this review, we present an overview of the studies carried out on collagen obtained from by-catch organisms and fish wastes. Additionally, we discuss novel technologies based on thermoplastic processes that could be applied, likewise, as marine collagen treatment.

Marine Collagen from Alternative and Sustainable Sources: Extraction, Processing and Applications.

There is a vast number of treatments on the market for the management of wounds and burns, representing a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide. These include conventional wound dressings, dressings that incorporate growth factors to stimulate and facilitate the wound healing process, and skin substitutes that incorporate patient-derived cells. This article will review the more established, and the recent advances in the use of biomaterials for wound healing therapies, and their future direction.

https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/221874/Development and use of biomaterials as wound healing therapies.pdf

Development and use of biomaterials as wound healing therapies.

The history of cosmetics goes back to early Egyptian times for hygiene and health benefits while the history of topical applications that provide a medicinal treatment to combat dermal aging is relatively new. For example, the term cosmeceutical was first coined by Albert Kligman in 1984 to describe topical products that afford both cosmetic and therapeutic benefits. However, beauty comes from the inside. Therefore, for some time scientists have considered how nutrition reflects healthy skin and the aging process. The more recent link between nutrition and skin aging began in earnest around the year 2000 with the demonstrated increase in peer-reviewed scientific journal reports on this topic that included biochemical and molecular mechanisms of action. Thus, the application of: (a) topical administration from outside into the skin and (b) inside by oral consumption of nutritionals to the outer skin layers is now common place and many journal reports exhibit significant improvement for both on a variety of dermal parameters. Therefore, this review covers, where applicable, the history, chemical structure, and sources such as biological and biomedical properties in the skin along with animal and clinical data on the oral applications of: (a) collagen, (b) ceramide, (c) β-carotene, (d) astaxanthin, (e) coenzyme Q10, (f) colostrum, (g) zinc, and (h) selenium in their mode of action or function in improving dermal health by various quantified endpoints. Lastly, the importance of the human skin microbiome is briefly discussed in reference to the genomics, measurement, and factors influencing its expression and how it may alter the immune system, various dermal disorders, and potentially be involved in chemoprevention.

https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/19/10/3059/pdf

Enhancing Skin Health: By Oral Administration of Natural Compounds and Minerals with Implications to the Dermal Microbiome.

Collagen is a fibrillar protein that conforms the conjunctive and connective tissues in the human body, essentially skin, joints, and bones. This molecule is one of the most abundant in many of the living organisms due to its connective role in biological structures. Due to its abundance, strength and its directly proportional relation with skin aging, collagen has gained great interest in the cosmetic industry. It has been established that the collagen fibers are damaged with the pass of time, losing thickness and strength which has been strongly related with skin aging phenomena [Colageno para todo. 60 y mas. 2016. http://www.revista60ymas.es/InterPresent1/groups/revistas/documents/binario/ses330informe.pdf.]. As a solution, the cosmetic industry incorporated collagen as an ingredient of different treatments to enhance the user youth and well-being, and some common presentations are creams, nutritional supplement for bone and cartilage regeneration, vascular and cardiac reconstruction, skin replacement, and augmentation of soft skin among others [J App Pharm Sci. 2015;5:123-127]. Nowadays, the biomolecule can be obtained by extraction from natural sources such as plants and animals or by recombinant protein production systems including yeast, bacteria, mammalian cells, insects or plants, or artificial fibrils that mimic collagen characteristics like the artificial polymer commercially named as KOD. Because of its increased use, its market size is valued over USD 6.63 billion by 2025 [Collagen Market By Source (Bovine, Porcine, Poultry, Marine), Product (Gelatin, Hydrolyzed Collagen), Application (Food & Beverages, Healthcare, Cosmetics), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2014 - 2025. Grand View Research. http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/collagen-market. Published 2017.]. Nevertheless, there has been little effort on identifying which collagen types are the most suitable for cosmetic purposes, for which the present review will try to enlighten in a general scope this unattended matter.

Collagen: A review on its sources and potential cosmetic applications.

In the cellular environment, high noise levels, such as fluctuations in biochemical reactions, protein variability, molecular diffusion, cell-to-cell contact, and pH, can both mediate and interfere with cellular functions. In this work, gold edge-coated triangular silver nanoparticles (AuTSNP) were validated as a promising new tool to indicate protein conformational transitions in cultured cells and to monitor essential protein activity in the presence of an optimized bone biomimetic chitosan-based scaffold whose rational design mimics the ECM as a natural scaffold. A chitosan-based scaffold formulation with hydroxyapatite (CS/HAp) was selected due to its promising features for orthopedic applications, including combined high mechanical strength biocompatibility and biodegradability. Functionalized AuTSNP-based tests with the model ECM protein, fibronectin (Fn), illustrate that the protein interactions can be clearly sensed over time through the local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) technique. This demonstrates that AuTNSP are a powerful tool to detect protein conformational activity in the presence of biomimetic bone tissue regeneration scaffolds within a cellular environment that comprises a diversity of molecular cues.

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Monitoring In Vitro Extracellular Matrix Protein Conformations in the Presence of Biomimetic Bone-Regeneration Scaffolds Using Functionalized Gold-Edge-Coated Triangular Silver Nanoparticles

Triangular silver nanoplates (TSNPs) exhibit unique optical and antimicrobial properties due to their shape, sharp edges, and vertices. In this study, TSNPs were incorporated into biopolymer blends (bacterial cellulose (BC) with polylactic acid (PLA), polycaprolactone (PCL), and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)). Antimicrobial activity of materials was tested against Escherichia coli ATCC 95922 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 (106 CFU/mL). After incubation (24 h at 37 °C, 100 rpm), optical density was measured at 630 nm. In order to assess biosensing applications, specifically fibronectin (Fn) behavior, TSNPs were protected with gold (AuTSNP) and analyzed via sucrose sensitivity test and monitored by localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). Additionally, AuTSNPs were coated with polyethylene glycol (PEGAuTSNP). Fibronectin functionalization of PEGAuTSNPs and pH-conformation was monitored (FnPEGAuTSNP). Eventually, adequate Fn and anti-Fn antibody concentrations were determined. BC/PHB/TSNPs showed antimicrobial activity against E. coli and S. aureus with 80 and 95% of growth inhibition, respectively. The sucrose sensitivity test indicated that the LSPRλmax of the spectra is directly proportional to the sucrose concentration. LSPRλmax of Fn-PEGAuTSNPs at pH 7 and pH 4 were measured at 633 and 643 nm, respectively. A total of 5 µg of Fn was determined to be adequate concentration, while 0.212 mg/mL of anti-Fn antibody indicatied system saturation.

Laura G Rodríguez Barroso

Papers

Collagen: A review on its sources and potential cosmetic applications.

Monitoring In Vitro Extracellular Matrix Protein Conformations in the Presence of Biomimetic Bone-Regeneration Scaffolds Using Functionalized Gold-Edge-Coated Triangular Silver Nanoparticles

Triangular Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis: Investigating Potential Application in Materials and Biosensing

How transparent are quantitative studies in contemporary technology education research? Instrument development and analysis