Marine gelatine methacryloyl–based hydrogels for tissue engineering

Introduction: Marine organisms are constituted by materials with a vast range of properties and characteristics that may justify their potential application within the biomedical field and have been receiving increasing attention as they are free from the transmissible diseases associated with the use of mammalian resources, as well as the fact that they may enable high production at a low cost.[1] Gelatine (Figure 1) is derived from the fibrous protein collagen, which is the principal constituent of animal skin, bone, and connective tissue, by denaturation and often partial hydrolysis.[2] Gelatine can be combined with methacrylic anhydride to give origin to methacrylated gelatine (GelMA), enabling the formation of hydrogels and 3D printing upon photocrosslinking.[3] To improve the characteristics of GelMA in order to increase the migration, adhesion, proliferation and differentiation of cells and to promote the preservation of the differentiated states of the cells, glycosaminoglycans such as hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate can be added.[4]. Conclusions: Potential procedure for gelatine extraction because this is an environmentally sustainable process and represents a strategy to valorize a fish by-product; According to the results from CD and FTIR analysis, the gelatine extracted from halibut skins has a profile identical to commercial type B gelatine; As future work, the goal is the production of marine GelMA-based hydrogels mimicking the extracellular matrix that enables cell encapsulation, to be approached through the culture of chondrocyte-type cell lines for tissue engineering.