title: Biological effects of Spirulina (Arthrospira) biopolymers and biomass in the development of nanostructured scaffolds.
abstract: Spirulina is produced from pure cultures of the photosynthetic prokaryotic cyanobacteria Arthrospira. For many years research centers throughout the world have studied its application in various scientific fields, especially in foods and medicine. The biomass produced from Spirulina cultivation contains a variety of biocompounds, including biopeptides, biopolymers, carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, minerals, oligoelements, and sterols. Some of these compounds are bioactive and have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, and antifungal properties. These compounds can be used in tissue engineering, the interdisciplinary field that combines techniques from cell science, engineering, and materials science and which has grown in importance over the past few decades. Spirulina biomass can be used to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), biopolymers that can substitute synthetic polymers in the construction of engineered extracellular matrices (scaffolds) for use in tissue cultures or bioactive molecule construction. This review describes the development of nanostructured scaffolds based on biopolymers extracted from microalgae and biomass from Spirulina production. These scaffolds have the potential to encourage cell growth while reducing the risk of organ or tissue rejection.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology and Biochemical, College of Chemistry and Food Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande, P.O. Box 474, Avenida Itália, Km 8, 96203-900 Rio Grande, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Michele Greque
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: de Morais
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology and Biochemical, College of Chemistry and Food Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande, P.O. Box 474, Avenida Itália, Km 8, 96203-900 Rio Grande, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Bruna da Silva
authors.initials: Bda S
authors.lastname: Vaz
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Food Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande, P.O. Box 474, 96203-900 Rio Grande, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Etiele Greque
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: de Morais
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Food Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande, P.O. Box 474, 96203-900 Rio Grande, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Jorge Alberto Vieira
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Costa
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D053545:Spirulina / Q000737:chemistry*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers