Recombinant Human Collagen in Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Collagen is the dominant structural protein of vertebrate connective tissues and a central biomaterial in skin, cornea, tendon, cartilage, bone, vessel, oral mucosa, and wound repair. Traditional collagen products have largely been extracted from bovine, porcine, fish, or other animal tissues. Although animal‐derived collagens have a long clinical history, they have limitations including batch variability, residual nonhuman epitopes, possible immunogenicity, pathogen‐related concerns, ethical constraints, and limited molecular engineering. Recombinant human collagen has emerged as a synthetic‐biology alternative designed to reproduce full‐length human collagen chains, selected human collagen domains, or engineered humanized collagen‐like sequences in controlled expression systems.