1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the field of collagen compositions and their methods of use.
2. Description of Related Art
Collagen compositions have been utilized for more than 30 years to augment or smooth out soft tissue defects such as dermal wrinkles and dermal folds, to volumize furrows, or to correct dermal contour unevenness and laxity.
The collagen compositions utilized for soft tissue augmentation have been comprised of either reconstituted collagen fibrils prepared from solubilized collagen extracted from animal hides, reconstituted collagen fibrils prepared from soluble recombinant human collagen or intact collagen fibrils or fibers processed from human skin. In all cases the collagen composition has been composed of collagen fibrils/fibers or crosslinked collagen fibrils/fibers.
Since soft tissues are primarily composed of collagen-based matrices, it makes sense to correct soft tissue defects with collagens or collagen-based compositions. There have been at least twelve FDA approved collagen products available for soft tissue augmentation in the U.S. since 1981. These products are generally called dermal fillers. However, at this time, most of the collagen-based fillers are no longer available in the U.S. market. They have been replaced by compositions that provide more durability including hyaluronic acid products, and products containing hydroxylapatite microbeads, poly-L-lactic acid particles, and polymethylmethacrylate microspheres.
There is still interest in having improved collagen-based compositions available for soft tissue augmentation. However, the compositions must exhibit increased durability.