From Food Waste to Innovative Biomaterial: Sea Urchin-Derived Collagen for Applications in Skin Regenerative Medicine

Abstract

Collagen-based skin-like scaffolds (CBSS) are promising alternatives to skin grafts to repair wounds and injuries. In this work, we propose that the common marine invertebrate sea urchin represents a promising and eco-friendly source of native collagen to develop innovative CBSS for skin injury treatment. Sea urchin food waste after gonad removal was here used to extract fibrillar glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-rich collagen to produce bilayer (2D + 3D) CBSS. Microstructure, mechanical stability, permeability to water and proteins, ability to exclude bacteria and act as scaffolding for fibroblasts were evaluated. Our data show that the thin and dense 2D collagen membrane strongly reduces water evaporation (less than 5% of water passes through the membrane after 7 days) and protein diffusion (less than 2% of BSA passes after 7 days), and acts as a barrier against bacterial infiltration (more than 99% of the different tested bacterial species is retained by the 2D collagen membrane up to 48 h), thus functionally mimicking the epidermal layer. The thick sponge-like 3D collagen scaffold, structurally and functionally resembling the dermal layer, is mechanically stable in wet conditions, biocompatible in vitro (seeded fibroblasts are viable and proliferate), and efficiently acts as a scaffold for fibroblast infiltration. Thus, thanks to their chemical and biological properties, CBSS derived from sea urchins might represent a promising, eco-friendly, and economically sustainable biomaterial for tissue regenerative medicine.

The Collagen-Based Medical Device MD-Tissue Acts as a Mechanical Scaffold Influencing Morpho-Functional Properties of Cultured Human Tenocytes

“…Its content is regulated by a finely balanced turnover controlled by tenocytes acting at the level of collagen synthesis, maturation and degradation. Collagen turnover, therefore, plays a key role in determining the tendon ability to resist mechanical forces and repair in response to injury [ 9 ]. We previously demonstrated that MD favors COL-I secretion [ 19 ], suggesting that this medical compound is able to trigger the anabolic phenotype of tenocytes.…”

“…MD-Tissue (MD) is an injectable collagen-based medical compound containing swine-derived collagen as the main component. Swine collagen has high biocompatibility with human collagen, with a very low risk of adverse effects when used in different medical applications, and it was also used to prepare collagen-based skin-like scaffolds [ 9 ]. Indeed, clinical studies reported that MD-Knee, a collagen-based medical compound very similar in terms of composition to MD, is well tolerated, and no systemic adverse events or septic complications were observed when utilized on patients [ 10 , 11 ].…”

Biomaterials from the sea: Future building blocks for biomedical applications

“… [ 113 ] Jellyfish Rhopilema esculentum Collagen I Enhance cell migration, heal wound, hemostatic properties, modulate chondrogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells and cell culture substrate. [ 114 ] [ 115 ] [ 116 ] [ 117 ] Jellyfish Rhizostoma pulmo Collagen I Trigger similar responses in cell adhesion, proliferation or migration [ 118 ] Jellyfish Catostylus mosaicus Collagen I Support cell attachment and proliferation [ 119 ] Sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus Collagen I Skin regenerative medicine and collagenous extracellular matrix biomaterials for tissue engineering [ 120 ] [ 121 ] Squid Peru squid Collagen II Degenerative osteoarthritis-relieving effects [ 122 ] Persian Gulf squid skin Uroteuthis duvauceli Collagen I Anti-cytotoxic properties [ 123 ] Starfish Asterias amurensis Collagen I Production of two-dimensional membranes [ 124 ] Vertebrate organisms Cat Fish Ictalurus punctatus …”

From Waste to Product: Circular Economy Applications from Sea Urchin

“…To face these problems, in recent years, many researchers have studied and tested marine collagen as a biomaterial [49]. Indeed, it is promising because it is abundant [50], easy to find and biocompatible.…”