Abstract
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.
Highlights
Collagen is a complex macroprotein which groups 20%–30% of all proteins found in living organisms [1], and represents the main structural component of the extracellular matrix in all connective tissues and interstitial tissues of the parenchymal organs.Thanks to its unique properties, collagen is well-known as a structural support for biomedical devices, dermal implants and emerging health applications, as well as being largely used in nutricosmetic, food and beverages
We present a general overview of the studies carried out on by-catch organisms and wastes from fish and sea urchin processing industries in order to isolate collagen
Scaffolds for tissue engineering made of collagen extracted from the scytphomedusa Rhizostoma pulmo were successfully implanted into a mouse model and showed optimal adsorption and biocompatibility properties [50]. These findings suggest that collagen derived from scyphomedusae may become a suitable replacement for bovine-derived collagen
Summary
Collagen is a complex macroprotein which groups 20%–30% of all proteins found in living organisms [1], and represents the main structural component of the extracellular matrix in all connective tissues (i.e., skin, bones, ligaments, tendons and cartilage) and interstitial tissues of the parenchymal organs. It is known that collagen is a molecule with weak immunogenicity, which decreases the possibilities of rejection when it is ingested or injected into a different body This molecule has already low antigenicity, this property can be enhanced by modifying it to suppress any immune response [5,6]. Most available collagen was extracted from discards from the bovine and porcine processing industries, but during the last few decades the use of collagen from these sources has been limited. Biomass derived from the activities of fish-processing industries and fisheries (fish and sea urchin wastes, undersized fish and by-catch organisms such as jellyfish, sharks, starfish, sponges) might become an important, yet underexploited, source of collagen [9,10,11,12,13,14]. We discuss novel technologies based on thermoplastic processes that have been investigated for other types of proteins, and that might be applied to marine collagen
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