Isolation and Evaluation of Collagen from the Fish (Thunnus Tonggol) Skin: A Biological Material for Medical Tissue Engineering

Collagen bears many applications in pharmacy and medicine, health and cosmetic products as well as food industry. In recent years, much attention has been paid to separation of collagen from marine organisms arising from the fact that its use in the diet is not restricted and triggers no risk of contagious diseases as well as religious restrictions. Moreover, fish collagen is unique in terms of its extremely high solubility in dilute acid on a scale with mammalian and chicken collagen. The purpose of this study was to investigate the isolation and evaluation of collagen from fish skin (Thunnus tonggol) as a biological material for medical tissue engineering.

Acid-soluble collagen (ASC) was isolated from fish skin using acetic acid. The Thunnus tonggol skin collagen was extracted by acid and base methods and evaluated by PAGE-SDS, FTIR and UV spectrophotography and amino acid composition analysis.

The results, predicated on SDS-PAGE and amino acid compositions, demonstrated that the fish skin collagen is of type I. Fourier transform infrared analysis also revealed helical compositions of both collagens. UV spectrophotometry in the Thunnus tonggol skin collagen indicated a maximum absorption of 235 nm. The amount of collagen extracted from the Thunnus tonggol skin turned out to be 17.3%. Through analysis of collagen amino acid extracted from the mentioned fish, glycine was predominant. The growth and proliferation of human fibroblast cells on the collagen extracted from the Thunnus tonggol skin was more than control.

The results revealed that the fish collagen is an accessible and advantageous material for medical usage and tissue engineering.