Squid Protein Sets Up Basis of New Self-Healing Biomaterial

The new method of using natural collagen extracted from Dosidicus gigas squid as a tissue scaffold for growing cells instead of artificially synthesized collagen has been proposed by Scientists from Baltic Federal University and Voronezh State University. Collagen is the basic protein that makes up the intercellular matrix, or in other words, the environment for the connective tissue cells of our body, such as tendons, bone, and cartilage. It looks like long threads, woven into three-dimensional networks.

This, in turn, creates a kind of tissue scaffold. Since collagen fibers are durable, elastic, and serve as signals that determine the cell’s so-called destiny, in medicine. They are used as an environment to accelerate the growth and differentiation of tissues.

However, even the most advanced technologies are unable to create collagen «networks» that exactly repeat the structure of a natural cellular environment, most favorable for its regeneration, or in other words, tissue repair.

Protein Extracted from Squid May Increase Tissue Growth for Regenerative Medicine

This large marine animal is the most popular commercial species of squid that is used in cooking and by scientists when studying animal brains and behavior. Considering the availability and high volumes of Dosidicus gigas catch (up to 700 tons a year), this species may yet become a source of collagen for medical purposes on an industrial scale.

They extracted collagen from the squid’s skin, then the protein was blended with glycerin and water and dried in a special chamber, to shape it into the form of a scaffold. The durability and elasticity of the resulting fibrous material were then tested by stretching the sample.

It turned out that the material’s mechanical properties matched those already used as cell scaffolds in regenerative medicine. Analysis of amino acid sequence, which is part of the protein, has shown that the Dosidicus gigas collagen is like mammal collagen, making it possible to be used when working with human cell cultures with no risk of rejection.

To experimentally prove that the squid scaffold is suitable for growing human cells, scientists have placed samples into small plastic nutrient-filled walls and afterward applied human stem cell cultures onto their surfaces.

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Cell culture observation has shown that in four days the cells strongly bound to the collagen scaffold, forming a big network with each other. Besides that, cells began to actively interact with the substrate, transforming it and releasing extracellular matrix into the environment — molecules that play an important role in tissue restoration.

Hence, researchers have concluded that squid collagen has no toxic effect since the median survival of cells that were cultivated there was 90%. The results of the work have already attracted the interest of the industry. For example, only one company, Varseas, produces collagen of the described type in Russia.

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Source-Newswise