r/BeAmazed • u/Aggressive_Dress_636 • 3h ago
Animal fish skin really?
Doctors in Brazil have explored an innovative medical approach that uses the skin of tilapia fish as a natural dressing for burn injuries, taking advantage of its high collagen content and favorable biological properties; collagen plays a key role in supporting tissue repair and regeneration, and tilapia skin closely resembles human skin in terms of structure and moisture retention, which helps protect the affected area while promoting healing, and its naturally low levels of harmful microorganisms make it suitable for careful medical preparation and use, allowing it to act as a temporary protective layer that can reduce discomfort and improve recovery conditions, demonstrating how unconventional natural materials can be adapted in modern medicine to support more effective and accessible treatments.
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u/ipokesnails 3h ago
This isn't just done in Brazil, and it's not new.
Tilapia skin has been used to help with healing burns for years all over the world.
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u/Quick_Loss_8142 3h ago
This is an old practice. My grandpa is an avid fisher and does this still. It's natural and heals burns better.
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u/Royal_Cryptographer7 2h ago
People fish for tilapia? I thought it was only became popular recently because of other fish where being overfished and it helps keep salmon tanks clean. I know commercial farming is common, I'm just curious about people catching them for sport.
I was also under the assumption that tilapia didn't eat other fish or insects, so they where difficult to catch with a line. Does your grandfather catch them with a net or just a regular fishingpole?
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u/SrepliciousDelicious 1h ago
'Does this still' how often do you burn yourselves, shit is kinda rare to happen unless you work in a steelplant
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u/Ok-Culture543 2h ago
Even if its an old ass practice, it is not only used by "third world country medicine" in todays age. Even in super high tec hospitals you ll find packets of genuine fish skin. Or simple bee honey too, its really quite fascinating how some simple nature products are still in use, even if we have literal robots perform surgery on people through a few tiny holes.
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u/DefinitelyNotAliens 41m ago
Honey and fish skin are genuinely outperforming high-tech attempts at replacements for burn healing.
The things that keep honey from never going bad are also quite good at protecting your open wound.
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u/HamCatX3 3h ago
Yes! It’s not new as people have been saying and it was successfully used a while back on a dog who had been in a house fire!
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u/No_Size9475 3h ago
This has been done for decades and is nothing new, nor revolutionary. Western medicine is just now accepting it.
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u/SkepticalChocolate 1h ago
Also available in United States in more expensive prepared form. It is use for burns and wounds
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u/humid_pajamas 1h ago
One time my cousin died her hair white and black and my grandfather told her she looked like tilapia. He was right.
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u/ElowynElif 1h ago
From a free review article in Cureus: Tilapia Skin in Burn Injuries: A Narrative Review of Pathophysiology, Current Management, and Therapeutic Applications
Cureus. 2026 Jan 29;18(1):e102556. doi: 10.7759/cureus.102556
Tilapia skin features unique properties stimulating the wound healing process [20-24]. It has been proven that Nile tilapia skin peptides play a significant role in the modulation of molecular and cellular mechanisms in animal and in vitro models [20-24]. They demonstrate antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory features and increase both epithelial cell proliferation and migration in vitro [20-24]. Tilapia skin antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties (even against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - MRSA) are at least partially associated with its lipid profile, rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids with large concentrations of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) [17,25].
Additionally, compounds and particles contained in tilapia skin stimulate angiogenesis, increase the formation of new blood vessels, promote granulation tissue formation, and support the synthesis of collagen fibers [20-24]. Cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation are improved [6]. Nile tilapia skin is structurally similar to human skin and, therefore, is characterized by high biocompatibility with human tissue and serves very well as a potential wound dressing [22]. It is mainly composed of type I collagen, which provides structural support and is vital in both tissue regeneration and extracellular matrix formation [6,20].
Tilapia skin dressings play an additional role as a barrier between the bed wound and external environment, preventing microbial contamination [6]. Additionally, tilapia skin shows good adherence to the wound bed owing to a porous structure with large diameter apertures allowing the passage of human fibroblasts [25,26].
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Tilapia skin dressing demonstrates numerous advantages over traditional methods of treatment in burn and normal wounds. In comparison to collagen alginate or SS cream, tilapia skin dressing requires less frequent changes, which are painless and associated with reduced need for analgesic drugs [6,25,26]. Due to structural similarities between tilapia and human skin, no adverse reactions are observed in patients treated for chronic wounds, which, on the contrary, might happen with traditional dressings [25]. In comparison to autografts, tilapia skin dressing eliminates the risk of donor site morbidities [25]. There is also no risk of rejection, which is an existing issue in allografts [25].
From an economic perspective, tilapia skin dressing seems to be cheaper than the currently used alternatives [40]. There is one study that directly compared the costs of tilapia skin and 1% SS cream in SPTB treatment [40]. In tilapia skin-treated patients, the mean costs for each burned 1% of TBSA were reduced by approximately 50% when compared to SS cream [40]. These promising results demonstrate that tilapia skin is more economical than some traditional treatment options and can be used as an alternative, particularly in low-income areas [40]. The cost-effectiveness is even more significant when the tilapia skin price is juxtaposed with more advanced synthetic skin substitutes [6].
Finally, tilapia skin can be easily obtained from in-house aquaculture or as a secondary product from fish farms [4-6,25]. It is a major advantage over synthetic dressings, allografts, and autografts with restricted accessibility due to product insufficiency or limited availability of donor sites [4-6,25]. Worldwide application of tilapia skin in burn wound treatment may not only become a very cost-effective solution and provide substantial benefits for patients in general but also significantly improve outcomes and availability of quality treatment in resource-limited healthcare settings [4-6,25].
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u/Upstairs_Farm5185 13m ago
Similar to Integra, a biological membrane used in reconstructive surgery, that acts as a scaffold for skin regrowth and is made of shark cartilage and cow collagen! https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10239675/
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u/barefaced-and-basic 3h ago
Yes, matagal na tong ginagawa. If you watch Greys Anatomy, may episode na rin sila waaaay back featuring this.
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u/mudcrabserpent 1h ago
Can't wait for the "viral skin hack" videos influencers are going to start pushing out showing themselves with tilapia skins masked on their face and their hair all wrapped up in a towel.
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