During nature evolution process, living organisms have gradually adapted to the environment and been adept in synthesizing high performance structural materials at mild conditions by using fairly simple building elements. The skin, as the largest organ of animals, is such a representative example. Conferred by its intricate organization where collagen fibers are arranged in a randomly interwoven network, skin collagen (SC), defined as a biomass derived from skin by removing non-collagen components displays remarkable performance with combinations of mechanical properties, chemical-reactivity and biocompatibility, which far surpasses those of synthetic materials. At present, the application of SC in medical field has been largely studied, and there have been many reviews summarizing these efforts. However, the generalized view on the aspects of SC as smart materials in non-medical fields is still lacking, although SC has shown great potential in terms of its intrinsic properties and functionality. Hence, this review will provide a comprehensive summary that integrated the recent advances in SC, including its preparation method, structure, reactivity, and functionality, as well as applications, particularly in the promising area of smart materials.

中文翻译：

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皮肤胶原蛋白的最新进展：功能性和非医学应用

在自然进化过程中，生物逐渐适应环境，并通过使用相当简单的建筑元素，擅长在温和条件下合成高性能结构材料。皮肤是动物的最大器官，就是这样的代表性例子。皮肤胶原蛋白（SC）被定义为通过去除非胶原蛋白成分而从皮肤中衍生出来的生物质，其复杂的组织结构是将胶原蛋白纤维排列在随机交织的网络中，具有机械性能，化学反应性和生物相容性相结合的卓越性能，远远超过了合成材料。目前，对SC在医学领域中的应用进行了广泛的研究，并且有许多综述总结了这些努力。然而，尽管SC在其固有特性和功能方面显示出巨大潜力，但仍然缺乏在非医学领域将SC用作智能材料方面的普遍观点。因此，本综述将提供一个综合的摘要，综合了SC的最新进展，包括SC的制备方法，结构，反应性和功能性及其应用，尤其是在有前途的智能材料领域。