Liquid crystalline human recombinant collagen: the challenge and the opportunity

Collagen is a key component of the extracellular matrix, and by far the most prominent constituent of all load-bearing tissues. Its abundance and self-assembly capacities render it a practical scaffold material for tissue repair and regeneration applications. However, some difficulties exist in artificially regenerating functional collagen structures to match native tissues and their respective performances. There are two major limitations of existing collagen-based scaffolds: The first one is poor mechanical performance, and the second one is the failure to closely mimic natural tissues as to provide the necessary topographic and mechanical cues required for cell propagation and differentiation. The complexity of inducing sufficient order and alignment stands at the base of the impediments to successful formation of artificial collagen scaffolds, which closely match native tissue strength and morphology. Recombinant human collagen produced in transgenic tobacco plants has the capacity of forming highly concentrated liquid crystalline dope that can be aligned by application of shear force. Leveraging shear alignment of liquid crystalline recombinant human collagen opens new possibilities toward obtaining scaffolds that may be able to provide the necessary mechanical support, while closely mimicking the molecular signals and mechanical cues displayed to natural cell milieu. Such scaffolds may prove advantageous in the development of improved medical devices in fields, such as ophthalmology, neurology, and orthopedics.