Design of scaffolds for biopelt from tanning sector by-products

The aim of the present work is to generate by in vitro technology at laboratory scale a biomaterial with similar characteristics to genuine leather. The generation of an in vitro tissue from bovine fibroblasts is carried out on the basis of a scaffold to generate a three-dimensional extra-cellular matrix (3D ECM). Finally, the scaffolds have to be suitable for biomaterial production at lab scale using a bioreactor with specific culturing conditions. In a further step, new methodologies to stabilize the new biomaterial were investigated. The biomaterial generation involves the elimination of the heavy water consumption steps in conventional leather manufacture. Since this biopelt doesn’t need to be subjected to the beamhouse steps previous to stabilization, a reduction of 50-60% in water consumption is achieved. Consequently, pollution in wastewaters is minimized. In view of the nature of this work and the necessary explanatory work, some of the detail has been placed in appendices at the end of the paper. (M.K.L.)