Collagen as a Potential Biomaterial in Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Collagen, a biopolymer finds its application in the preparation of pharmaceutical products that are used in wound management, ophthalmic, orthopaedic and oral surgeries. This wide applicability is due its special properties such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, easy availability and high versatility. Collagen is isolated from various sources such as bovine skin, fish skin, chicken skin, skin waste of marine organisms, solid wastes of leather industry, short tendons of slaughtered cattle and bone. The isolated collagen from biological wastes is found to be cost effective due to the adaptation of simple methods for its isolation when compared with other commercially available biological macromolecules. The functional groups such as amino and carboxylic acid present in collagen helps in its modification that suits for various end uses which include wound healing, ophthalmic defects, drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. These beneficial properties impart uniqueness to collagen molecule among the available bio molecules.