Analysis of Therapeutic Effectiveness of Selected Types of Collagen in Prevention and Treatment of Degenerative Joint Disease.

Loss of collagen is a natural development accompanying aging of the body. It may be additionally accelerated by various conditions, including osteoarthritis (OA). Within the last two decades numerous and diverse studies have been conducted worldwide with the aim of identifying substances containing collagen, producing therapeutic preparations of expected effectiveness in the prevention and therapy of OA that would be safe to use and developing methods of delivering the final product into the body. The authors reviewed and analysed the latest available literature by selecting papers presenting the findings of studies conducted in line with the principles of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). The studies have been ordered from in vitro trials (studies on animals in the laboratory setting, use of tissue engineering methods to assess the effect of cartilage transplants, use of different collagen types for development of scaffolds etc.) to in vivo clinical trials. It appears that the findings of the latest multidimensional studies presented below, which confirm the therapeutic effectiveness of new-generation injectable medical collagen preparations, will help these medical products gain their well-deserved position in the comprehensive treatment of osteoarthritis both with respect to their analgesic properties as well as their ability to enable functional recovery and stimulate regeneration of tissues at the molecular level.