A technique that purifies frog skin, blends it into a paste and extracts its pure collagen has led to the design of a biocompatible wound care patch.
Scientists at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University believe the frog skin-based wound dressing will speed healing of chronic diabetic skin ulcers in particular. Fish skin has been used in the same approach previously.
Frog flesh is a common food in Singapore, where the skins of farm-raised bullfrogs are typically discarded during processing. Associate Professor Dalton Tay and team developed the patch both because it would be compatible for human use and because it could reduce waste.
Their dressing features a porous layer inside which white blood cells and other healing agents coagulate. It also creates a barrier that keeps the wound moist and promotes healing. The collagen, meanwhile, acts as a scaffold for neighboring skin cells to move onto during the late-stage healing.
The researchers are working with the medical technology firm Cuprina Wound Care Solutions to conduct human clinical trials within two years.
From the October 2022 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
