Jellyfish are helping scientists develop futuristic materials for medicine and biological research.
The material, based on jellyfish collagen, would act as a cellular scaffold to support a range of applications, from tissue regeneration to the production of lab-grown humanlike organs for use in medical research.
Jellyfish are thought to have evolved roughly 500 to 700 million years ago, according to the Smithsonian Ocean Portal. That's approximately 250 million years before the first dinosaurs. The animals are composed of three layers: an outer layer called the epidermis, a middle layer made of a thick, elastic jelly called the mesoglea, and an inner layer called the gastrodermis.
The mesoglea is mainly made of water and fibrous proteins like collagen. Researchers hope to use these proteins in health care settings.
Inside the jellyfish, the proteins combine into a molecular scaffold that holds the jellyfish's cells together. This molecular support structure is called an extracellular matrix, and similar matrices hold together the cells in our body tissues. So, to make a humanlike organ in a lab or repair a piece of missing tissue, extracellular matrices are an essential piece of the puzzle.
Different animals have different types of extracellular matrix. But the extracellular matrices of jellyfish resemble those of many other animals, including dinosaurs and humans.
Scientists believe that the jellyfish matrix evolved millions of years ago and acted as an evolutionary precursor for all the other types of extracellular matrix seen in animals today. For this reason, scientists refer to it as the extracellular matrix (ECM) type zero.
Now, researchers from the National Physical Laboratory and biotech company Jellagen Ltd have revealed that this ECM type zero could be used to support the development of various humanlike organs and tissues in health care and laboratory settings.
In their experiments, published in the journal Materials Today Bio, the team explored the properties of the collagen-based extracellular matrix of a jellyfish called Rhizostoma pulmo—commonly known as the barrel jellyfish.
The team named their product JellaGel and hopes it will provide an effective and natural hydrogel structure that is easy to use and free of biological contaminants.
"It has been a long journey as it is a complex challenge for a small company to create, manufacture, and launch a hydrogel based on polymers such as Jellyfish collagen," Jellagen CEO Thomas-Paul Descamps said in a statement. "I am very impressed by the work delivered by the team. It is also very ambitious in a conservative market where there has been few innovations in the past. But as a result, there are a lot of improvements which can be brought against the competition.
"Because of the unique scaffold properties of Jellyfish collagen, we never gave up on this challenge and are now very proud to bring to the market such an innovative solution to grow cells."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Pandora Dewan is a Senior Science Reporter at Newsweek based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on science, health ... Read more
