Applications include pharmaceutical industries, tissue engineering, biomedical industry, and medical industry

TUESDAY, Dec. 5, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Collagen, the most profuse protein in the animal kingdom, has multiple applications in various industries, according to an article published March 2015 in the Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science.

Noting that collagen is widely applied, K.S. Silvipriya, from the St. James Hospital Trust Pharmaceutical Research Centre in India, and colleagues described collagen and its application in various fields.

The authors note that collagen is a fibrous structural protein present in the extracellular matrix and connective tissue of animals and is the most profuse protein in the animal kingdom. Nearly 28 types of collagen have been identified, composed of 46 distinct polypeptide chains. Collagen is extracted from multiple animal sources, including bovine, porcine, marine, and fish. Applications of collagen include as micromicroparticles, injectable dispersions, shields in ophthalmology sponges, and drug delivery systems in pharmaceutical industries; in tissue engineering, including as the basic matrix for cell culture systems and in injectable matrices and scaffolds; in the biomedical industry for tissue regeneration scaffolds; and in the medical field, as scaffolds that help in cartilage and bone reconstruction, in cases of grafting failure or avoidance, and in vascular and cardiac reconstruction as well as collagen-based dressings. Collagen has uses in cardiology, dermatology, surgery, orthopedics, ophthalmology, urology, and vascular medicine.

“Collagen has widespread applications in numerous fields such as pharmaceutical, medical, biomedical, food industry, cosmetics, etc. A wide range of applications of collagen have by now been recognized and many more are waiting be revealed in future,” the authors write.