Natural marine sponges for bone tissue engineering: The state of art and future perspectives

Abstract

Marine life and its rich biodiversity provide a plentiful resource of potential new products for the society. Remarkably, marine organisms still remain a largely unexploited resource for biotechnology applications. Among them, marine sponges are sessile animals from the phylum Porifera dated at least from 580 million years ago. It is known that molecules from marine sponges present a huge therapeutic potential in a wide range of applications mainly due to its antitumor, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antibiotic effects. In this context, this article reviews all the information available in the literature about the potential of the use of marine sponges for bone tissue engineering applications. First, one of the properties that make sponges interesting as bone substitutes is their structural characteristics. Most species have an efficient interconnected porous architecture, which allows them to process a significant amount of water and facilitates the flow of fluids, mimicking an ideal bone scaffold. Second, sponges have an organic component, the spongin, which is analogous to vertebral collagen, the most widely used natural polymer for tissue regeneration. Last, osteogenic properties of marine sponges is also highlighted by their mineral content, such as biosilica and other compounds, that are able to support cell growth and to stimulate bone formation and mineralization. This review focuses on recent studies concerning these interesting properties, as well as on some challenges to be overcome in the bone tissue engineering field. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 105B: 1717-1727, 2017.

Fabrication of carbonate apatite honeycomb and its tissue response

“…An interconnected porous structure is attractive for bone substitutes because bone tissue and cells can penetrate the bone substitute . Furthermore, microporous structure should play an important role in cell growth and differentiation, similar to the niche environment or microenvironment produced by the extracellular matrix .…”

“…An interconnected porous structure is attractive for bone substitutes because bone tissue and cells can penetrate the bone substitute. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Furthermore, microporous structure should play an important role in cell growth and differentiation, similar to the niche environment or microenvironment produced by the extracellular matrix. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Among many porous structures available, the honeycomb (HC) structure is unique due to its fully interconnected and oriented pores having the same pore size, [34][35][36][37][38][39] and shows high mechanical strength in the direction of the pores.…”

Marine Spongia collagens: Protein characterization and evaluation of hydrogel films

“…Marine sponges synthesize a variety of specialized bioactive compounds, some of which are being investigated for nutraceutical or pharmaceutical applications as reported elsewhere . Raw sponges or collagens extracted from sponge skeletons were used to develop tissue engineering scaffolds and dermal drug delivery systems . In addition, sea sponges are used worldwide for their numerous industrial, medical, household, and cultural uses.…”

“…There are reports of using chitosan to enhance some key properties such as mechanical and biological functionalities of biomaterials based on collagen of marine fish and bovine sources . Composite materials were developed for bone tissue engineering based on marine sponge species . This is the first report of investigation of protein profile of Spongia officialis collagen and processing of the hydrogel films in conjunction with chitosan.…”

“…[18][19][20][21] Raw sponges or collagens extracted from sponge skeletons were used to develop tissue engineering scaffolds and dermal drug delivery systems. 14,15,[22][23][24] In addition, sea sponges are used worldwide for their numerous industrial, medical, household, and cultural uses. Significantly, sea sponges are a renewable living resource, which can survive and regenerate if sufficient sponge tissue is left attached to the substrate, and they can be easily cultivated by aquaculture in remote island communities.…”