title: Teleost fish scales: a unique biological model for the fabrication of materials for corneal stroma regeneration.
abstract: The corneal stroma is composed of multiple lamellae, each containing closely packed collagen fibrils. The orientation of fibrils in a lamella is parallel, but those in different lamellae are orthogonal. As a result, the corneal stroma has a characteristic orthogonal plywood-like structure. Such a highly-regulated three-dimensional arrangement of collagen fibrils gives strength and transparency to the corneal stroma, but it also presents a challenge in the fabrication of materials to replace it. A bioinspired technology is required to process such materials, but the regulatory mechanism of collagen-fibril orientation is still unknown. The low regenerating activity of the corneal stroma seems to be a major factor preventing progress in this field of research. A similarly highly-ordered arrangement of collagen fibrils can be seen in the basal plates of teleost fish scales. Moreover, the scales have high regenerating ability. When a scale is mechanically lost, a new scale is rapidly regenerated. The cells that produce the basal plates are extremely activated; thus, production of the highly-ordered collagen fibrils is very rapid. Therefore, the regenerating scales should be a uniquely helpful biological model for studying the regulatory mechanism of collagen-fibril orientation. Fish-scale collagen has another advantage for use as a biomaterial: the low probability of zoonotic infection. Therefore, scale collagen is a most promising biomaterial for fabricating three-dimensionally arranged collagen fibers to substitute for the corneal stroma. Three tasks that must be clarified for the bioinspired production of a corneal substitute from fish scale collagen are proposed.
authors: Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Minato-cho 3-1-1, Hakodate, Hokkaido 041-8611, Japan.
authors: Yasuaki
authors: Y
authors: Takagi
authors: Kazuhiro
authors: K
authors: Ura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry; D003319:Corneal Stroma / Q000502:physiology*; D006054:Goldfish; D008422:Materials Testing; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008954:Models, Biological; D036103:Nanotechnology; D012038:Regeneration
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003094:Collagen