Application of frog (Rana tigerina Daudin) skin collagen as a novel substrate in cell culture

Collagen and collagen-based materials have extensive application in biomedical devices and tissue engineering. The current paper pertains to the application of frog (Rana tigerina Daudin) skin collagen as a novel substrate in cell culture. The study deals with the behavior, morphology, and physiology of keratinocytes and fibroblasts over dry and reconstituted collagen substratum, which are the key cells involved in wound repair. The advantage of using frog skin collagen as a substratum lies in the ease with which the reconstituted gel can be formed. Further, frog skin collagen is highly hydrophilic, which may be attributed to the fact that amphibians, as the first vertebrates connecting water and land, must have evolved certain physiologic specializations. These studies also contribute to the hypothesis that part of the healing efficacy of frog skin may be due to the collagen since proliferation, migration, and differentiation of epithelial cells are prime requisites for a normal healing mechanism. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.