Comparison of Commercial Collagen and Marine Collagen: Efficiency and Effects on the Formation of EDC/NHS-Crosslinked Membranes

Abstract This study investigates the extraction and characterisation of collagen derived from fish skin and scales, the collagens obtained were used to produce membranes which were subsequently cross-linked by EDC/NHS. A comprehensive investigation of their microstructure, composition, mechanical properties, swelling, degradation, thermal properties and a 24 h cell viability test was carried out. The results showed that the yields of collagen from skin and fish scales were 25.14 ± 2.90 and 29.26 ± 2.53%, respectively. Mechanical stress tests showed that membranes made from fish skin collagen and commercial collagen had comparable load-bearing capacities before failure. The Young’s modulus of the membranes was 9.45 MPa ± 1.77 for commercial collagen, 5.76 MPa ± 0.74 for fish skin collagen and 2.43 MPa ± 0.78 for fish scale collagen, this similarity was maintained in degradation tests and at denaturation temperature (75 °C).These results demonstrate the viability of collagen derived from marine by-products as an effective and efficient alternative for biomedical and tissue engineering applications.