Oriented Type I Collagen - A Review on Artificial Alignment Strategies

Abstract

Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body and serves many functions, from mechanical stability and elasticity in tendons and bone, to optical properties, such as transparency and a fine tuned refractive index in the cornea of the eye. Collagen has interested humankind for centuries: Leonardo Da Vinci studied and drew the tendons in the human body precisely in the 15th and 16th century. A look at the literature reveals easily > 200,000 papers. This article reviews oriented type I collagen artificial alignment strategies.

Collagen Alignment via Electro-Compaction for Biofabrication Applications: A Review

“…Interestingly, it was confirmed that the mechanism of alignment was a combination of both flow (due to bead movement) and the magnetic field. When either variable is removed, the scaffolds did not align [ 11 , 86 ]. When crosslinked with genipin (0.25%), the scaffolds possessed a tangent modulus of approximately 1 MPa and a strain of 0.035%, higher than that of conventional collagen gels [ 87 ].…”