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A microneedle array is an attractive option for a minimally invasive means to break through the skin barrier for efficient transdermal drug delivery. Here, we report the applications of solid polymer-based ion-conductive porous microneedles (PMN) containing interconnected micropores for improving iontophoresis, which is a technique of enhancing transdermal molecular transport by a direct current through the skin. The PMN modified with a charged hydrogel brings three innovative advantages in iontophoresis at once: (1) lowering the transdermal resistance by low-invasive puncture of the highly resistive stratum corneum, (2) transporting of larger molecules through the interconnected micropores, and (3) generating electroosmotic flow (EOF). In particular, the PMN-generated EOF greatly enhances the transdermal molecular penetration or extraction, similarly to the flow induced by external pressure. The enhanced efficiencies of the EOF-assisted delivery of a model drug (dextran) and of the extraction of glucose are demonstrated using a pig skin sample. Furthermore, the powering of the PMN-based transdermal EOF system by a built-in enzymatic biobattery (fructose / O 2 battery) is also demonstrated as a possible totally organic iontophoresis patch. Transdermal delivery has emerged as a preferred method of drug delivery. Here, the authors report on the application of porous polymer microneedles coupled with electroosmosis powered by enzymatic batteries for the transport of small and large molecules through the skin.

HighlightsHydrogel demonstrates superior merits of strain (1586%), self-adhesion (113 kPa for pigskin), high conductivity and transparency (92%).The wearable sensors with a gauge factor up to 18.54, wide pressure sensing range (0–600 kPa) enable the detecting, quantifying, and monitoring of human activities.The hydrogels were developed as electronic skin, high output stretchable CTA-TENGs and explored using as wearable keyboards for human-machine interaction.To date, hydrogels have gained increasing attentions as a flexible conductive material in fabricating soft electronics. However, it remains a big challenge to integrate multiple functions into one gel that can be used widely under various conditions. Herein, a kind of multifunctional hydrogel with a combination of desirable characteristics, including remarkable transparency, high conductivity, ultra-stretchability, toughness, good fatigue resistance, and strong adhesive ability is presented, which was facilely fabricated through multiple noncovalent crosslinking strategy. The resultant versatile sensors are able to detect both weak and large deformations, which owns a low detection limit of 0.1% strain, high stretchability up to 1586%, ultrahigh sensitivity with a gauge factor up to 18.54, as well as wide pressure sensing range (0–600 kPa). Meanwhile, the fabrication of conductive hydrogel-based sensors is demonstrated for various soft electronic devices, including a flexible human–machine interactive system, the soft tactile switch, an integrated electronic skin for unprecedented nonplanar visualized pressure sensing, and the stretchable triboelectric nanogenerators with excellent biomechanical energy harvesting ability. This work opens up a simple route for multifunctional hydrogel and promises the practical application of soft and self-powered wearable electronics in various complex scenes.

This research aimed to synthesize carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCH) from different molecular weights of chitosan including low MW (L, 50–190 kDa), medium MW (M, 210–300 kDa) and high MW (H, 310–375 kDa) on the antioxidant and moisturizing properties. The L-CMCH, M-CMCH and H-CMCH improved the water solubility by about 96%, 90% and 89%, respectively when compared to native chitosan. Higher MW resulted in more viscous of CMCH. For antioxidant properties, IC50 values of DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity for L-CMCH were 1.70 and 1.37 mg/mL, respectively. The L-CMCH had higher antioxidant properties by DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assay and FRAP. The moisturizing properties on pig skin using a Corneometer® showed that 0.5% H-CMCH significantly presented (p ≤ 0.05) greater moisturizing effect than that of untreated-skin, distilled water, propylene glycol and pure chitosan from three molecular weights.

In this paper, gelatin was extracted from the scales of Coregonus peled, Carp and Bighead carp by the acid method, and the structure and functional properties of the obtained scale gelatin and food-grade pigskin gelatin (FG) were compared. The results showed that all gelatins exhibited relatively high protein (86.81–93.61%), and low lipid (0.13–0.39%) and ash (0.37–1.99%) contents. FG had the highest gel strength, probably because of its high proline content (11.96%) and high average molecular weight distribution. Low β-antiparallel was beneficial to the stability of emulsion, which led FG to have the best emulsifying property. The high content of hydrophobic amino acids may be one of the reasons for the superior foaming property of Bighead carp scales gelatin (BCG). The gel strength of Carp scales gelatin (CG) and BCG, the ESI of Coregonus peled scales gelatin (CPG) and the foaming property of BCG indicate that fish gelatin has the potential to be used in food industry as a substitute for pig skin gelatin.

This study was to evaluate the effect of antifreeze peptides from pigskin collagen hydrolysates (CoAPPs) on the fermentation properties, texture properties, water distribution and water mobility of dough during freezing and freeze–thaw cycles. The fermentation properties of the frozen dough were more stable in the CoAPPs groups than those of control groups. The texture profile analysis showed that the hardness, gumminess and chewiness of the CoAPPs breads were significantly smaller ( P  < 0.05) than controls. The NMR showed that addition of CoAPPs weakened the influence of the freeze–thaw treatment on water mobility and influenced the water distribution in frozen dough. The results suggest that CoAPPs could potentially serve as a food-origin cryoprotectant in the conventional dough products.

The growing interest in valorizing industrial by-products has led researchers to focus on exploring different sources and optimizing collagen extraction conditions over the past decade. While bovine hide, cattle bones, pork, and pig skins remain the most abundant collagen sources, there is a growing trend in the industrial utilization of collagen from non-mammalian species. This review explores alternative marine collagen sources and summarizes emerging trends in collagen recovery from marine sources, with a particular focus on environmentally friendly methods. Additionally, this review covers the colloidal structure-forming properties of marine collagens, including foam, film, gel, and emulsion formation. It also highlights the potential and important applications of marine collagen in various food products. Based on the currently reported marine sources, collagens extracted from fish, jellyfish, and sea cucumbers were found to have the highest yield and mostly comprised type-I collagen, while crustaceans and mollusks yielded lower percentages of collagen. Traditional extraction techniques isolate collagen based on acetic acid and pepsin treatment, but they come with drawbacks such as being time-consuming, causing sample destruction, and using solvents. Conversely, marine collagen extracted using conventional methods assisted with ultrasonication resulted in higher yields and strengthened the triple-stranded helical structures. Recently, an increasing number of new applications have been found in the food industry for marine collagens, such as biodegradable film-forming materials, colloid stabilizers, foaming agents, and micro-encapsulating agents. Furthermore, collagen is a modern foodstuff and is extensively used in the beverage, dairy, and meat industries to increase the stability, consistency, and elasticity of products.

This study successfully synthesized Fe 2 O 3 @rGO nanocrystals using a straightforward sol-gel method in a pigskin-gel (gelatin type A) environment. The fabricated nanocomposites include Fe 2 O 3 -linked nanosheets in a reduced graphene oxide-like double tetrahedral pyramid (DTP) structure and Fe 2 O 3 nanocrystals resembling Cheetos puffs (CPs). The Fe 2 O 3 @rGO material was characterized through a variety of analytical techniques, including X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, elemental mapping, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, vibrating sample magnetometer, nitrogen physisorption, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic efficiency of Fe 2 O 3 and Fe 2 O 3 @rGO samples in demineralizing rhodamine B in an aqueous solution was thoroughly evaluated. Remarkably, the Fe 2 O 3 @rGO composites exhibited significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity and degradation efficiency compared to pure Fe 2 O 3 nanocrystals. The improved performance can be attributed to effective electron transport between the reduced graphene oxide and the semiconductors, effectively reducing electron-hole recombination. Additionally, the Fe 2 O 3 @rGO nanocrystals demonstrated excellent magnetic properties, enabling easy separation and recovery after five cycles of reusability testing. These findings highlight the promising potential of this magnetic nano photocatalyst for efficient and sustainable wastewater treatment applications, particularly in the degradation of rhodamine B. Graphical Abstract Highlights In the presence of pigskin gel, the synthesis of Fe 2 O 3 nanocrystals (NCs) resembling Cheetos puffs (CPs) were carried out. In the presence of pigskin gel as a reducing agent, Fe 2 O 3 nanocrystals with double tetrahedral pyramidal geometry (DTP) attached to reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets were obtained. Fe 2 O 3 @rGO:DTP Showed improved responsiveness compared to the pure Fe 2 O 3: CPs for the degradation of organic pollutants.

Wound dressings play an important role in the wound healing process. For the shortcomings of traditional wound dressings, hydrogel wound dressing with high strength and high water content is a new ideal wound dressing. In this study, polyvinyl alcohol and sodium alginate were selected as raw materials to form the first layer of network structure by physical cross-linking and chemical cross-linking. Then, the double network structure composite hydrogels were obtained by immersed in tannic acid solution. The microstructure, mechanical properties, water content, swelling ratio, antibacterial properties, adhesion properties and rheology of the hydrogels were subsequently investigated. The obtained double network hydrogels have high mechanical properties due to chemical cross-linking and hydrogen bonding interactions, and the maximum tensile strength can reach 4.06 MPa and the elongation at break is up to 569.12%. The optimized calculations from molecular simulations proved that the strengths of the three different types of hydrogen bonds formed reached 37.70, 54.98 and 60.50 kJ/mol, respectively, also justifying the high mechanical strength of the hydrogels. The hydrogel can form good adhesion on various substrate materials such as wood, plastic, glass and pigskin with maximum adhesion strengths of 200.6, 24.8, 24.4 and 13.1 kPa, respectively. Wood surface has higher adhesion strength due to the presence of large amount of cellulose and hydrogen bonds formed by hydrogel. In conclusion, good adhesion can be formed on the surface of different materials. It was a wound dressing with potential application. Graphical abstract

Staphylococcal extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) such as extracellular DNA (eDNA) and poly-N-acetylglucosamine surface polysaccharide (PNAG) mediate numerous virulence traits including host colonization and antimicrobial resistance. Previous studies showed that EPS-degrading enzymes increase staphylococcal biocide susceptibility in vitro and in vivo, and decrease virulence in animal models. In the present study we tested the effect of EPS-degrading enzymes on staphylococcal skin colonization and povidone iodine susceptibility using a novel in vivo pig model that enabled us to colonize and treat 96 isolated areas of skin on a single animal in vivo. To quantitate skin colonization, punch biopsies of colonized areas were homogenized, diluted, and plated on agar for colony forming unit enumeration. Skin was colonized with either Staphylococcus epidermidis or Staphylococcus aureus. Two EPS-degrading enzymes, DNase I and the PNAG-degrading enzyme dispersin B, were employed. Enzymes were tested for their ability to inhibit skin colonization and detach preattached bacteria. The effect of enzymes on the susceptibility of preattached S. aureus to killing by povidone iodine was also measured. We found that dispersin B significantly inhibited skin colonization by S. epidermidis and detached preattached S. epidermidis cells from skin. A cocktail of dispersin B and DNase I detached preattached S. aureus cells from skin and increased their susceptibility to killing by povidone iodine. These findings suggest that staphylococcal EPS components such as eDNA and PNAG contribute to skin colonization and biocide resistance in vivo. EPS-degrading enzymes may be a useful adjunct to conventional skin antisepsis procedures in order to further reduce skin bioburden.

Frozen red meat products face dual challenges: structural damage from ice recrystallization and subsequent oxidative deterioration driven by endogenous pro-oxidants in heme-rich matrices. This study investigated the efficacy of pigskin collagen-derived antifreeze peptides (APPs) as clean-label cryoprotectants in pork sausages. In vitro characterization confirmed distinct thermal hysteresis (0.51 °C) and potent ice recrystallization inhibition. In the sausage system, 6% APPs overcame ionic screening effects, reducing thawing loss to 4.87% (vs. 7.51% in control) and cooking loss to 14.59%, significantly outperforming commercial phosphates in moisture retention. Low-field NMR revealed that APPs stabilized the actomyosin hydration shell, maintaining the immobilized water proportion (P21) at 93.67% (vs. 88.50% in control) and inhibiting conversion of immobilized water into free water. Furthermore, APPs suppressed oxidative deterioration, limiting protein carbonyl content to 3.08 nmol/mg (vs. 3.71 nmol/mg in control), supporting a “physical–chemical cascade” mechanism whereby superior microstructural preservation mitigates downstream oxidative deterioration. Despite a trade-off in textural resilience (0.37 vs. 0.44), APPs function as specialized “Ice-Structure Stabilizers” offering a robust clean-label strategy for preserving heme-rich meat products.