Functionalizing bullfrog skin collagen for wound healing

• Main Author: Foo, Laura Li-En
• Other Authors: Dalton Tay Chor Yong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials::Biomaterials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/139153
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Wound healing is a complex problem and a full healing of the wound through the four phases of wound healing is ideal but not common. Wounds need to be managed with wound dressings in order to avoid infections or the development of chronic wounds. Type I collagen is present in intact dermal tissue and is known to support endothelial cell attachment and keratinocytes regeneration in wound healing. Hence, making it the ideal wound dressing material. In this study, bullfrog skin collagen has been proposed as a non-traditional source of Type I collagen for dermal wound healing applications. The novel mechano-chemical collagen extraction method developed in this project enabled collagen to be extracted at a 70% yield, which is 2 folds higher compared to traditional acid soluble extraction method. The extracted collagen was thoroughly characterized using ATR-FTIR, SDS-PAGE, CD Spectroscopy, DSC and In vitro studies. The pristine bullfrog collagen was subsequently methylated and succinylated with the aim to improve the solubility of the bullfrog collagen fibers in water, as well as to render the collagen with photocrosslinkable properties. Biological performance of the chemically modified bullfrog collagen was examined using Cell proliferation assay, Live/Dead cell viability assay and TNBS assay. Results showed that bullfrog collagen is a type I collagen and it is soluble in water. Methylated and succinylated collagen had much higher denaturation temperatures compared to pristine collagen, hence indicating a better thermal stability. In addition, methylated collagen had higher cell proliferation rates compared to pristine collagen. This would mean that methylated collagen when applied to wounds could help improve the wound healing rate. Modified bullfrog collagen was methacrylated to make it photocrosslinkable. However, the collagen could not crosslink and solidify under UV light. Hence, further optimization of the methacrylation process needs to be done to successfully 3D print collagen for wound healing applications.