Hierarchical structure and cytocompatibility of fish scales from Carassius auratus

Abstract To study the structure and the cytocompatibility of fish scales from Carassius auratus , scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the morphology of fish scales treated with different processing methods. Based on varying morphologies and components, the fish scales can be divided into three regions on the surface and three layers in vertical. The functions of these three individual layers were analyzed. SEM results show that the primary inorganic components are spherical or cubic hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles. The fish scales have an ~ 60° overlapped plywood structure of lamellas in the fibrillary plate. The plywood structure consists of co-aligned type I collagen …