Collagen from Marine Biological Source and Medical Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Collagen is the main fibrous structural protein in the extracellular matrix and connective tissue of animals. It is a primary building block of bones, tendons, skin, hair, nails, cartilage, and all joints in the body. It is also considered a "glue" that holds the body together. The production of collagen begins to slow down and cell structures start losing their strength as we get older. Supplementing with collagen is a vital way to help our body revive and stay youthful. Recently, collagen-based biomedical materials have developed important and clinically effective materials that have gained wide acceptance. However, collagen extraction from land animal source is complex, time consuming and expensive. Hence, marine sources have started to be researched and have been found to be the most convenient and safest sources for obtaining collagen. Another reason for favouring this source is due to the concern over adverse inflammatory and immunologic response and prevalence of various diseases among land animals which causes health complications.

Marine source also has plenty of advantages over the land animal sources such as: (1) High content of collagen; (2) environment friendly; (3) presence of biological contaminants and toxins almost negligible; (4) low inflammatory response; (5) greater absorption due to low molecular weight; (6) less significant religious and ethical constrains; (7) minor regulatory and quality control problems; (8) metabolically compatible, and much more. This source includes the use of marine invertebrates and vertebrates, such as sponges, coralline red algae, sea urchin, octopus, squid, jellyfish, cuttlefish, star fish, sea anemone, and prawn. Therefore, a huge source of marine collagen is expected to make a great contribution to marine biotechnology products and medical applications.

As Guest Editors of this Special Issue of Marine Drugs, We invite you to submit recent advances in all the aspects of marine collagen, including original work or reviews and new innovations on the biological sources and their promising applications in medical and related fields.

Dr. Azizur Rahman
Dr. Tiago H. Silva
Guest Editors

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