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Abstract
Collagen is regarded as one of the most useful biomaterials. The excellent biocompatibility
and safety due to its biological characteristics, such as biodegradability and weak
antigenecity, made collagen the primary resource in medical applications. The main
applications of collagen as drug delivery systems are collagen shields in ophthalmology,
sponges for burns/wounds, mini-pellets and tablets for protein delivery, gel formulation
in combination with liposomes for sustained drug delivery, as controlling material
for transdermal delivery, and nanoparticles for gene delivery and basic matrices for
cell culture systems. It was also used for tissue engineering including skin replacement,
bone substitutes, and artificial blood vessels and valves. This article reviews biomedical
applications of collagen including the collagen film, which we have developed as a
matrix system for evaluation of tissue calcification and for the embedding of a single
cell suspension for tumorigenic study. The advantages and disadvantages of each system
are also discussed.