A Feb. 11, 2015 news item on Nanowerk features Chinese research on tilapia fish skin and possible applications for wound healing (Note: A link has been removed),

With a low price tag and mild flavor, tilapia has become a staple dinnertime fish for many Americans. Now it could have another use: helping to heal our wounds. In the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (“Development of Biomimetic Tilapia Collagen Nanofibers for Skin Regeneration through Inducing Keratinocytes Differentiation and Collagen Synthesis of Dermal Fibroblasts”), scientists have shown that a protein found in this fish can promote skin repair in rats without an immune reaction, suggesting possible future use for human patients.

A Feb. 11, 2015 American Chemical Society (ACS) news release, which originated the news item, provides a few more details about the work,

Jiao Sun, Xiumei Mo and colleagues explain that applying collagen — a major structural protein in animals — to wounds can help encourage skin to heal faster.  But when the protein dressing comes from mammals such as cows and pigs, it has the potential to transmit conditions such as foot-and-mouth disease. Searching for an alternative source of collagen, scientists recently turned to the ocean. Sun’s team wanted to test fish collagen’s potential as a more benign wound treatment.

The researchers developed nanofibers from tilapia collagen and used them to cover skin wounds on rats. The rats with the nanofiber dressing healed faster than those without it. In addition, lab tests on cells suggested that the fish collagen was not likely to cause an immune reaction. The researchers conclude that it could be a good candidate to develop for clinical use.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Development of Biomimetic Tilapia Collagen Nanofibers for Skin Regeneration through Inducing Keratinocytes Differentiation and Collagen Synthesis of Dermal Fibroblasts by Tian Zhou, Nanping Wang, Yang Xue, Tingting Ding, Xin Liu, Xiumei Mo, and Jiao Sun. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2015, 7 (5), pp 3253–3262 DOI: 10.1021/am507990m Publication Date (Web): January 19, 2015

Copyright © 2015 American Chemical Society

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