Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser – Synthetic resins – Processes of preparing a desired or intentional composition...
Patent
1987-11-05
1990-12-25
Cashion, Jr., Merrell C.
Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser
Synthetic resins
Processes of preparing a desired or intentional composition...
524 21, 524 22, 424 942, 514 21, 530355, 530356, 530840, 530842, C08J, C08L 8906, C07K 1506, A61K 3700
Patent
active
049804030
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to collagen products.
In a particular aspect this invention relates to collagen products made from soluble collagen. A new method by which soluble collagen can be formed into quasi-crystalline structures by precipitation using soluble polymers is described. The use of an aggregate of this quasi-crystalline collagen to form a variety of collagen materials which have improved properties compared with existing collagenous materials is described. Such improved collagen materials have application in various fields including the manufactures, for example, of products for medical use.
Collagen is an extremely common protein in the animal kingdom and therefore many uses for products based upon collagen have developed. Many products use collagen in either its native form (i.e. the triple helical structure pre-existing in an animal or human body), or regenerated into this form, or after denaturation of the collagen, in the form of gelatine. Native collagen is used for various products such as in the production of leather from animal skins, or such as the production of sausage casings in which the collagen is finely divided and reformed into the desired structure.
There are also many uses of collagen and for items made from collagen in medical fields such as in artificial arteries, veins, tendons, corneas, heart valves, skin, or patches or the like which are used as replacement parts for disease or injury affected parts in humans, or in cosmetic applications such as mammary prostheses or injectable collagen, or in collagen sponges, sutures or haemostat materials which may be used during surgery or in the treatment of disease (Chvapil, 1979). Many of these medical products made from collagen are at present unsatisfactory because of an inability to reproduce the native structure, composition or strength which exists in the normal collagenous tissue or because of the immune response elicited by the presence of immunogenic collagen or components or other material foreign to the body.
In its native form in the body, collagen exists in many types and in the most common of these types, collagen exists as fibrils in which individual collagen molecules are arranged in a staggered overlap structure (Bornstein and Traub, 1979). These fibrils are stabilised and made insoluble by intermolecular crosslinks between the non-helical portions (telopeptides) of adjacent collagen molecules (Bornstein and Traub, 1979). If the collagen, from normal, mature tissue is to be made soluble the crosslinks must be broken, for example by digestion with an enzyme such as pepsin.
Soluble collagen can be reconstituted in a variety of ordered aggregate forms. Some are fibrous in form, and fibrils in which the collagen is arranged in its native staggered way can be reformed. The rate of the fibril reforming process is enhanced if collagen with intact telopeptides is used. However, results from the use of injectable soluble collagen have shown that the telopeptides lead to an antigenic response in humans; collagen lacking telopeptides is relatively non antigenic (Linsenmayer, 1982) but can still be made to form fibrils. Materials formed by fibril regeneration are often too hydrated and additional methods such as freezedrying or cell-induced contraction must be used to give a functional product.
Other non-native fibrous aggregates, termed FLS collagen, can be formed in which the collagen molecules are arranged in various staggered arrangements with the orientation of the molecules in both directions.
Quasi-crystalline aggregates can also be formed. These include very small crystallites of collagen, termed SLS collagen, in which the collagen molecules all have the same orientation, but there is no stagger between molecules. These have been of partial use in deducing the native structure of collagen but SLS collagen has been of little use in the manufacture of larger structures like biomedical products. Also, quasi-crystalline tactoids of collagen can be prepared, using conditions similar to those used for reconstituting fibrils, by
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Bateman John F.
Peters David E.
Ramshaw John A. M.
Tulloch Peter A.
Azpuru Carlos
Cashion Jr. Merrell C.
The University of Melbourne
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