Biological Effects ofSpirulina(Arthrospira) Biopolymers and Biomass in the Development of Nanostructured Scaffolds

Abstract

Spirulinais produced from pure cultures of the photosynthetic prokaryotic cyanobacteriaArthrospira. For many years research centers throughout the world have studied its application in various scientific fields, especially in foods and medicine. The biomass produced fromSpirulinacultivation contains a variety of biocompounds, including biopeptides, biopolymers, carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, minerals, oligoelements, and sterols. Some of these compounds are bioactive and have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, and antifungal properties. These compounds can be used in tissue engineering, the interdisciplinary field that combines techniques from cell science, engineering, and materials science and which has grown in importance over the past few decades.Spirulinabiomass can be used to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), biopolymers that can substitute synthetic polymers in the construction of engineered extracellular matrices (scaffolds) for use in tissue cultures or bioactive molecule construction. This review describes the development of nanostructured scaffolds based on biopolymers extracted from microalgae and biomass fromSpirulinaproduction. These scaffolds have the potential to encourage cell growth while reducing the risk of organ or tissue rejection.