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ORIGINAL RESEARCH

In vivo evaluation of marine collagen sponge for wound healing in a rat model

Yuliya Kulikova1* ,  Vladimir Popov2 ,  Stanislav Sukhikh1 ,  Alena Shilova3 ,  Maria Dubrova3 ,  Lubov Dishluk1 ,  Olga Babich1
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1 Higher School of Living Systems, Institute of Medicine and Life Sciences, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia
2 Research Laboratory of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
3 Department of Translational Medicine Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
BMT, 75 https://doi.org/10.12336/bmt.25.00075
Submitted: 27 June 2025 | Revised: 2 September 2025 | Accepted: 11 September 2025 | Published: 23 October 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). Licensee Biomaterials Translational, USA. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en)
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Abstract

Collagen exerts local wound-healing effects and is widely used in clinical practice, particularly in the form of collagen-based patches, films, and sponges derived from bovine sources. However, such collagen carries disadvantages, including the risk of disease transmission and potential viral contamination. Therefore, collagen from marine invertebrates is being actively investigated for potential clinical applications. The objective of the study is to evaluate the wound-healing potential of collagen from the biomass of the jellyfish (Aurelia aurita). In this study, two types of collagen sponges—one made from acid-soluble collagen modified with sodium alginate, and the other from collagen additionally cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (insoluble)—were evaluated for their wound-healing and immunostimulatory properties in a rat skin wound model. Both formulations demonstrated wound-healing and antifibrotic effects, as well as improved the clinical welfare of animals. The insoluble formulation demonstrated the strongest regenerative effect during the early stage of skin wound healing (day 1), outperforming both the soluble formulation and the negative control. However, only the soluble formulation exhibited anti-inflammatory activity. The insoluble formulation improved postoperative welfare in rats, as evidenced by reduced weight loss and a higher behavioral welfare index relative to the untreated control group. In contrast, the immunostimulatory and epithelialization-accelerating effects of the soluble formulation were weaker than those of the insoluble formulation. Moreover, the soluble sponge exhibited limited granulation tissue vascularization, indicating potential adverse effects during therapeutic application. This work highlights the wound-healing and immunostimulatory potential of collagen sponges derived from A. aurita and supports their further investigation in diverse wound models and subsequent clinical studies. 

Keywords
Acid-soluble collagen
Aurelia aurita
Collagen matrix
Histological signs
Inflammatory markers
Skin wound defect
Funding
The work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, contract no. 075-15-2023-601 (ext. No. 13.2251.21.0219).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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