Natural-based biomaterials play an important role in developing new products for medical applications, primarily in cutaneous injuries. A large panel of biomaterials with antioxidant properties has revealed an advancement in supporting and expediting tissue regeneration. However, their low bioavailability in preventing cellular oxidative stress through the delivery system limits their therapeutic activity at the injury site. The integration of antioxidant compounds in the implanted biomaterial should be able to maintain their antioxidant activity while facilitating skin tissue recovery. This review summarises the recent literature that reported the role of natural antioxidant-incorporated biomaterials in promoting skin wound healing and tissue regeneration, which is supported by evidence from in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies. Antioxidant-based therapies for wound healing have shown promising evidence in numerous animal studies, even though clinical studies remain very limited. We also described the underlying mechanism of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and provided a comprehensive review of ROS-scavenging biomaterials found in the literature in the last six years.

Food Science of Animal Resources (Food Sci. Anim. Resour.) is an international, peer-reviewed bimonthly journal publishing original research and reviews on basic and applied aspects of the use of animal resources including the meat, egg, and dairy product. Food Sci. Anim. Resour. is published and distributed by the Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources.

Broiler skin, a by-product of poultry processing, has been proven to contain essential elastin, a high-value protein with many applications. The present study reported the extraction of water-soluble elastin from broiler skin by using sodium chloride (NaCl), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and oxalic acid treatment before freeze-drying. Chemical characterization such as protein and fat content, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, amino acid composition and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) were performed and compared with commercial elastin from bovine neck ligament. The resultant elastin’s toxicity was analyzed using an MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) tetrazolium assay and primary skin irritation test. Results showed a high quality of the extracted-elastin with the presence of a high amount of proline (6.55 ± 0.40%) and glycine (9.65 ± 0.44%), low amount of hydroxyproline (0.80 ± 0.32%), methionine (2.04 ± 0.05%), and histidine (1.81 ± 0.05%) together with calculated 0.56 isoleucine/leucine ratio. FTIR analysis showed the presence of typical peaks of amide A, B, I, and II for protein with high denaturation temperature around 322.9 °C. The non-toxic effect of the extracted elastin was observed at a concentration lower than 0.5 mg/mL. Therefore, water-soluble elastin powder extracted from broiler skin can be an alternative source of elastin as a biomaterial for tissue engineering applications.

Wound contracture, which commonly happens after wound healing, may lead to physical distortion, including skin constriction. Therefore, the combination of collagen and elastin as the most abundant extracellular matrix (ECM) skin matrices may provide the best candidate biomaterials for cutaneous wound injury. This study aimed to develop a hybrid scaffold containing green natural resources (ovine tendon collagen type-I and poultry-based elastin) for skin tissue engineering. Briefly, freeze-drying was used to create the hybrid scaffolds, which were then crosslinked with 0.1% (w/v) genipin (GNP). Next, the physical characteristics (pore size, porosity, swelling ratio, biodegradability and mechanical strength) of the microstructure were assessed. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometry were used for the chemical analysis. The findings showed a uniform and interconnected porous structure with acceptable porosity (>60%) and high-water uptake capacity (>1200%), with pore sizes ranging between 127 ± 22 and 245 ± 35 µm. The biodegradation rate of the fabricated scaffold containing 5% elastin was lower (<0.043 mg/h) compared to the control scaffold (collagen only; 0.085 mg/h). Further analysis with EDX identified the main elements of the scaffold: it contained carbon (C) 59.06 ± 1.36–70.66 ± 2.89%, nitrogen (N) 6.02 ± 0.20–7.09 ± 0.69% and oxygen (O) 23.79 ± 0.65–32.93 ± 0.98%. FTIR analysis revealed that collagen and elastin remained in the scaffold and exhibited similar functional amides (amide A: 3316 cm⁻¹, amide B: 2932 cm⁻¹, amide I: 1649 cm⁻¹, amide II: 1549 cm⁻¹ and amide III: 1233 cm⁻¹). The combination of elastin and collagen also produced a positive effect via increased Young’s modulus values. No toxic effect was identified, and the hybrid scaffolds significantly supported human skin cell attachment and viability. In conclusion, the fabricated hybrid scaffolds demonstrated optimum physicochemical and mechanical properties and may potentially be used as an acellular skin substitute in wound management.