Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Aškerčeva Cesta 7, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Mar Drugs. 2024 Sep 26;22(10):435. doi: 10.3390/md22100435.
Collagen is a popular nutricosmetic ingredient in food supplements due to its anti-aging and other positive effects on the skin. Due to its widespread use and the lack of regulation in this area, appropriate quality control is required to ensure efficacy and safety, with the development of analytical methods playing an important role. Currently, the quantitative determination of collagen is mainly based on time-consuming derivatization-based spectroscopic methods or on complex chromatographic methods with mass spectrometric detection. Therefore, in this study, two new, simple chromatographic methods have been developed. One is intended for the analysis of untreated samples and is characterized by the speed and simplicity of sample preparation. The other method quantifies collagen via the underivatized tripeptide Gly-Pro-Hyp formed by bacterial collagenase hydrolysis and is characterized by its specificity and ability to distinguish between marine and terrestrial collagen. The latter is a novelty in the field of simple methods for collagen analysis and is particularly important in terms of safety. Our comparison with established analytical methods (e.g., via hydroxyproline after complete hydrolysis) for collagen analysis undoubtedly showed the superiority of these new methods for the routine quality control of collagen supplements in terms of specificity, repeatability, sample stability, and simplification in sample preparation. The collagen content in the supplements tested was found to be adequate; however, some discrepancies were found regarding the labeling and origin of the collagen, with possible safety implications.
胶原蛋白因其具有抗衰老等对皮肤有益的作用，是食品补充剂中常用的一种美容营养成分。由于其广泛使用且该领域缺乏监管，因此需要进行适当的质量控制，以确保其功效和安全性，而开发分析方法则起着重要作用。目前，胶原蛋白的定量测定主要基于耗时的基于衍生化的光谱方法，或基于具有质谱检测的复杂色谱方法。因此，在这项研究中，开发了两种新的简单色谱方法。一种方法用于分析未经处理的样品，其特点是样品制备快速且简单。另一种方法通过细菌胶原酶水解形成的未衍生化三肽 Gly-Pro-Hyp 定量测定胶原蛋白，其特点是具有特异性，并且能够区分海洋和陆地胶原蛋白。后一种方法在胶原蛋白分析的简单方法领域是一种新颖方法，在安全性方面尤为重要。我们将这些新方法与用于胶原蛋白分析的既定分析方法（例如，通过完全水解后的羟脯氨酸）进行比较，这些新方法在特异性、重复性、样品稳定性以及样品制备的简化方面无疑显示出了用于胶原蛋白补充剂常规质量控制的优越性。测试的补充剂中的胶原蛋白含量被发现是充足的；然而，在胶原蛋白的标签和来源方面存在一些差异，这可能具有安全影响。
