IIT Hyderabad Researchers Develop Collagen From Waste Eel Skin

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad Researchers have derived collagen from waste eel skin and shown that tissue scaffolds built using such collagen allow growth and proliferation of stem cells

Valorization of discarded Marine Eel fish skin for collagen extraction as a 3D printable blue biomaterial for tissue engineering

Discarded marine Eel fish skin has essential properties of biomaterials for potential use in tissue engineering application. Processing and preparation of eel fish for edible purpose requires the removal of skin due to its thick size, which is treated as a waste. A huge amount of Eel skin is dumped as a waste material which leads to marine environmental pollution. To overcome this issue, we have isolated collagen from the discarded marine Eel skin as a potential blue biomaterial. Further, the isolated collagen was incorporated into alginate hydrogel to fabricate scaffolds using extrusion-based 3D printing technology. Swelling, degradation and biocompatibility were evaluated for lyophilized scaffolds. Biocompatibility studies were performed on hUMSCs (Human Umbilical cord Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells) by live/dead staining using FDA (fluorescein diacetate)/PI (Propidium Iodide). The quantitative evaluation of metabolic activity was performed using Alamar Blue (AB) dye reduction assay. All the hydrogels with collagen show enhanced metabolic activity and cell proliferation compared to alginate hydrogels without collagen. The utilization of Eel skin derived collagen for 3D printing application was not yet reported. Moreover, sustainable utilization of renewable marine Eel skin discard as a novel blue biomaterial is of immense value due to its low cost and has great potential for further tissue engineering applications

Effect of Marine Basidiomycetes Fulvifomes sp.-Derived Ergosterol Peroxide on Cytotoxicity and Apoptosis Induction in MCF-7 Cell Line

The aim of the present study is to extract the bioactive compounds which can induce the apoptosis in breast cancer cell line MCF-7 by marine basidiomycetes. Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) sequences based molecular taxonomic study confirmed that collected the marine basidiomycetes belongs to Fulvifomes sp. Further, the isolated compounds from the Fulvifomes sp. confirmed as ergosterol peroxide (EP) by spectroscopic studies. The compound inhibited 50% of the cell growth (IC50) at the concentration of 40 µg/mL and induced 90% cell death (IC 90) at the concentration of 80 µg/mL. The ergosterol peroxide generated Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and induced apoptotic cell death in MCF-7. Ethidium bromide/Acridine Orange (Et/Br) staining showed the increased number of early and late apoptosis in treated MCF-7 cells. The compounds treated cells indicated the significant loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) with p < 0.05. The induction of apoptosis by marine basidiomycetes derived ergosterol peroxide was confirmed by chromatin condensation in MCF7 cells using Hoechst staining 33342