Valorization of toxic discarded fish skin for biomedical application

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129147
• Publication Date: 2021-09-23T02:51:18Z
• Authors: Gopika Selvakumar; Iyappan Kuttalam; Sankari Mukundan; Suguna Lonchin
• Keywords: Discards; Environmental Pollution; Biocompatibility; Marine conservation

Abstract Fish discards are dumped into the sea and sea shore during fishing and segregation by fishing sectors. Fish of no or low economic value, or damaged and of a reduced value are thrown away. The discards adversely affect the marine habitats and huge number of proteins, essential fatty acids, collagen, enzymes are lost. The retrieval of the value-added components from these discards will be a better approach for waste utilization and for a cleaner ecosystem. The purpose of this study is to maximize the output and minimize the waste. As pollution generation is related to an inefficiency of resource use, the present study describes the state-of-the-art to make use of a discarded fish, Trachicephalus uranoscopus, for extracting collagen. High yield of 58.3% collagen was obtained through pepsin extraction and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that the isolated collagen was type I. The collagen was crosslinked with chemical crosslinkers and formed as a scaffold. The scaffold exhibited a maximum crosslinking efficiency of 60.92% and was stable for about 72 h with 50% enzymatic degradation rate. The whole blood clotting experiment and RBC attachment indicated hemocompatibility of the scaffolds. In vitro cytotoxic study in 3T3 fibroblast cells exhibited cell viability of 100% showing biocompatibility of the prepared scaffolds. From the results it can be concluded that the extracted collagen could be used for biomedical applications as an alternate for bovine collagen. The value-added product from the discarded fish skin has a positive impact on the marine ecosystem, human health, and the development of fishing industries.