Colágenas Recombinantes para Andamios de Ingeniería de Tejidos / Recombinant Collagens for Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

Resumen: Las colágenas son cada día más atractivas en la fabricación de andamios para Ingeniería de Tejidos, por su biocompatibilidad, manejo y capacidad de producirlas industrialmente. El objetivo del presente artículo fue presentar un análisis sobre el avance en la investigación, el desarrollo y producción de colágenas recombinantes de humano, los sistemas de producción y sus usos en Ingeniería de Tejidos. Se realizó una revisión de la literatura científica internacional arbitrada en bases de datos como Scopus, PubMed y Google Académico y se empleó aquella relevante a nuestro objetivo. Se encontró que el desarrollo de colágenas recombinantes de humano muestra un avance significativo y en la actualidad los sistemas de expresión, como bacterias y plantas, presentan ventajas sobre la calidad de la estructura y la biocompatibilidad, aunque con rendimientos todavía bajos. Mientras que existe escasa información sobre sus aplicaciones en Ingeniería de Tejidos, principalmente cartílago y hueso, en modelos animales y estudios clínicos. En las fuentes de información no se incluyeron patentes, por lo que nuestros hallazgos están limitados a publicaciones científicas. El presente trabajo, presenta los avances más recientes sobre la ingeniería de colágenas recombinantes y sus aplicaciones biomédicas en fabricación de tejidos con potencial uso clínico. Por lo que su factibilidad en la medicina regenerativa es prometedor y se requiere mayor investigación que permita su aplicación en un futuro cercano.

Abstract: Due to its biocompatibility, handling and industrial production capacity, collagens have been increasingly attractive in the manufacture of scaffolds for Tissue Engineering. The aim of the present work was to present an analysis on the progress in research, development and production of human recombinant collagens, expression systems and their uses in Tissue Engineering. A review of the international scientific peer-reviewed literature in databases such as Scopus, PubMed and Google Scholar was done and that relevant to our objective was employed. The development of human recombinant collagens was found to be significant, and currently the expression systems, like bacteria and plants, show advantages over structure quality and biocompatibility, albeit with still restricted yields. However, there is narrow information about its applications in Tissue Engineering, mostly studied for cartilage and bone, in animal models and clinical studies. We did not include patents in the study, thus our findings are limited to scholar data. The present work presents the most recent advances in the engineering of recombinant collagens and their biomedical applications in the manufacture of tissues with potential clinical applications. The potential of recombinant collagens in regenerative medicine is promising and more research is needed that might allow a broad application in the near future.

Development of the endocrine pancreas and novel strategies for beta-cell mass restoration and diabetes therapy

Diabetes mellitus represents a serious public health problem owing to its global prevalence in the last decade. The causes of this metabolic disease include dysfunction and/or insufficient number of β cells. Existing diabetes mellitus treatments do not reverse or control the disease. Therefore, β-cell mass restoration might be a promising treatment. Several restoration approaches have been developed: inducing the proliferation of remaining insulin-producing cells, de novo islet formation from pancreatic progenitor cells (neogenesis), and converting non-β cells within the pancreas to β cells (transdifferentiation) are the most direct, simple, and least invasive ways to increase β-cell mass. However, their clinical significance is yet to be determined. Hypothetically, β cells or islet transplantation methods might be curative strategies for diabetes mellitus; however, the scarcity of donors limits the clinical application of these approaches. Thus, alternative cell sources for β-cell replacement could include embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, and mesenchymal stem cells. However, most differentiated cells obtained using these techniques are functionally immature and show poor glucose-stimulated insulin secretion compared with native β cells. Currently, their clinical use is still hampered by ethical issues and the risk of tumor development post transplantation. In this review, we briefly summarize the current knowledge of mouse pancreas organogenesis, morphogenesis, and maturation, including the molecular mechanisms involved. We then discuss two possible approaches of β-cell mass restoration for diabetes mellitus therapy: β-cell regeneration and β-cell replacement. We critically analyze each strategy with respect to the accessibility of the cells, potential risk to patients, and possible clinical outcomes.