Use of waste from the leather industry for the production of biotechnological products based on collagen

Abstract

Leather industry generates vast quantities of by-products which could be a cheap and available source of collagen and collagen peptides. These peptides have been widely used in cosmetic, biomedical, and pharmaceutical industries. The main objective of present study was to obtain a biotechnological product based on collagen and to study its properties.Lime fleshings from hides were fragmented into small pieces with size ≤ 0.5 cm2. Collagen was extracted from trimming waste using 0.5 M acetic acid in the presence of 5 mM EDTA. The purity of extracted collagen was checked by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Collagen was enzymatically hydrolyzed by pepsin. To stop the reaction, the mixture was heated immediately at 100ºC and then centrifuged at 4000 g for 30 min. The supernatant was filtered through ceramic membrane for separation of collagen peptides fraction (26≤kDa). Collagen peptides were prepared from the obtained collagen. The generated collagen peptides was analyzed by SDS-PAGE using 18% resolving gel.The influence of collagen peptides on antioxidant enzymes and lipid peroxidation were explored. Collagen peptides supplementation also lowered serum level of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, IL-12, while level of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-4 was within the control value.