A Compliant, Strong, Suturable Collagen-based Biomaterial

Unmet Need
Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine hold immense promise for the future as new ways to regenerate and regrow biological tissues. An ideal tissue engineering scaffold is able to completely approximate the biochemical and mechanical properties of the tissue it is replacing, fully absorb into the body after new tissue has been established, be biocompatible, and finally be practical to manufacture and use.
 
Collagen is one of the major natural components of the extracellular matrix and as such, has found extensive use in tissue engineering and wound healing applications. However, collagen is a relatively stiff protein and breaks after stretching 10-20% its length. This property makes traditional collagen scaffolds inappropriate for highly pliable tissues such as blood vessels, bladder, and cardiac tissue, among others. Prior attempts of adding elastin to collagen in order to increase its flexibility resulted in failure because elastin tends to calcify in vivo leading to graft failure.
 
Technology Overview
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a modified collagen biomaterial that is remarkably compliant and ‘rubbery’, but retains strong tensile strength for a high suture strength without using elastin or external crosslinking. This material retains all of the benefits and simplicity of collagen, but its increased elasticity allows it to be applied to different tissue types. The material is 250% tougher and can stretch 450% its length compared to normal collagen. These physical properties make this modified collagen material ideal in a variety of applications where high strength and biocompliance are required.
 
Stage of Development
Animal data available.
 
Publications
Manuscript in preparation.
 
 

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