Philippine researchers say milkfish skin can be used to treat severe burns, skin wounds

By The Straits Times | Created at 2025-01-22 00:13:24 | Updated at 2025-01-22 04:14:20 4 hours ago

MANILA – Scientists at a top research institute in the Philippines have found a new, cheap and widely available source of skin grafts: the milkfish, known locally as “bangus”.

Skin grafting is a surgical procedure for treating burns, traumatic injuries, chronic ulcers and cancer.

But traditional sources of graft materials – human, pig and artificial skin – are often costly and not readily available, especially in poorer nations like the Philippines.

Since 2015, doctors in the Philippines have been using – as an alternative bandage – skin from the Nile tilapia, which has proven to be as good as human skin.

Researchers at the Ateneo Aquatic and Fisheries Resources Laboratory in Manila say milkfish skin – often discarded as waste – offers as much potential.

“Our study found that sterilised milkfish skin maintains high collagen integrity and is free from microbial contamination, making it comparable to tilapia skin,” Dr Janice Ragaza, the lead researcher, said.

Like tilapia skin, milkfish skin helps the wound recover faster and protects it from contamination as it prevents loss of moisture and proteins.

It also has high type I collagen content, which promotes the growth of fibroblasts, a type of cell in the connective tissue, helping the wound patch up and generate new layers of skin.

Just 10g of fish skin can yield around 200mg of collagen that will cost just over S$10 to process in a lab, according to researchers in Singapore.

The fish skin will eventually dry out. That means there will be no need to change cream and gauze frequently.

Like tilapia skin, milkfish skin may also be better than pig and toad skin, which carry a higher risk of animal disease infections.

It also overcomes cultural and religious restrictions associated with collagen derived from pigs, cows and sheep.

Human skin banks rely heavily on donors.

Milkfish skin, on the other hand, can be sourced at no cost from fish farms scattered across the Philippines, which is a top producer of milkfish.

Milkfish accounts for some 18 per cent of the country’s total fish production, contributing roughly 43.5 billion pesos (S$1 billion) to gross domestic product, according to the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

About 10 per cent of an average Filipino household’s fish consumption is milkfish.

The volume of milkfish harvested, meanwhile, has soared by 80 per cent for the past 20 years.

“Given its abundance and potential collagen content, milkfish skin presents a valuable opportunity to expand the donor pool for fish skin grafting,” said Dr Ragaza.

Dr Ragaza told The Straits Times that the next step would be to conduct clinical trials, get regulatory approvals and establish production protocols.

“If milkfish skin follows the typical trajectory and receives adequate funding and support, it could realistically take seven to 10 years before it becomes widely available in hospitals and clinics,” she said.