Effect of collagen supplementation on osteoarthritis symptoms: a meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials

Role of Collagen Derivatives in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Repair: A Systematic Scoping Review With Evidence Mapping

“…Very importantly, our findings indicate that there is consensus among clinical research authors that further research is needed to confirm these preliminary results [61,63,65] and, particularly, to elucidate the mechanisms of action [61,64] of collagen derivatives and their effectivity in delaying the natural history of cartilage degradation in OA patients [58, 65,67]. The need for high-quality and long-term clinical trials in larger populations has also been advocated by the authors of all the meta-analyses on collagen derivatives in OA [27,28,31]. On the other side, it is important to note that current evidence shows that collagen derivatives are safe for OA patients [59,64], although further confirmatory studies are warranted [28].…”

“…Types of Studies A total of 41 studies have been published on collagen derivatives in OA and cartilage repair so far. Sixteen of these studies were preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies [25,26,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] and 25 were clinical studies (including clinical trials, observational studies, and systematic reviews/ meta-analyses) [27,28,31,. Figure 2 depicts the distribution of the studies by specific study type.…”

“…Three major systematic reviews, all with meta-analysis, have evaluated the effects of collagen derivatives in OA patients [27,28,31]. These systematic reviews included different individual studies (Table 3), depending on their publication date and their selection criteria.…”

“…These systematic reviews included different individual studies (Table 3), depending on their publication date and their selection criteria. The two latest systematic reviews/meta-analyses [28,31] concluded on beneficial symptomatic effects of supplementation with collagen derivatives, but all advocated for longer clinical trials in larger populations to establish their therapeutic effects in OA patients.…”

“…Additionally, almost all of the randomized placebo-controlled trials available on collagen derivatives in OA are on food ingredients or nutraceuticals, rather than pharmaceutical-grade products [30]. Using data from these clinical trials, the latest metaanalysis found that collagen supplementation had significant positive effect on some (i.e., stiffness) but not the other (i.e., pain and functional limitation) OA symptoms [31]. This lack of strong clinical evidence on the usefulness of collagen derivatives for patients with OA may justify the fact that they are not currently recommended by the leading scientific societies on OA [8,9,32], although largely used by OA patients.…”