TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, TOKYO, JAPAN. Fish collagen and apatite allows the formation of new bone tissues in a span of three months. This innovation is absolutely faster than the typical six months requirement with the use of collagen from porcine dermis. It is safer to use since it does not pose any threat of infection to humans as compared to pigs that are plagued with viruses.

Junzo Tanaka and Toshiyuki Ikoma developed this technology to primarily help elders with bone tumors whose bones require a longer time to regenerate. The use of fish collagen as a material is very promising especially in bone therapy and development of artificial bones.

The two main advantages of artificial bones created from fish collagen and apatite are the following:

1. Implanted bones into defective ones can easily transform into bone tissue. As mentioned earlier, it is faster than the standard use of porcine dermis collagen.

2. The bones are very strong since they have higher density.

For the fish collagen project, researchers focused on Type 1 collagen that are extracted from Tilapia scales. This is due to the low fat in the scales and its main composition of pure collagen. The scale collagen has no fishy odor and has the highest denaturation temperature at 36oC.

Further studies show that the structure of the collagen fibrils from Tilapia scales is almost similar to the human corneal stroma. In this regard, the use of fish scale can be incorporated in the reconstruction of corneal stroma. The distinctive features of fish collagen has a great potential in the field of cosmetics. Future developments will include products like implantable biomaterials, cell culture substrates and scaffolds for tissue engineering.

The Tanaka and Ikoma Research group is continuously developing new products in the field of nano medicine and diagnostics. Generally, Tokyo Institute of Technology group does research on implantable biomaterials and tissue engineering. They collaborate with biologists and medical doctors to provide the best results possible.