Oral bioavailability of chondroitin sulfate (Condrosulf) and its constituents in healthy male volunteers

Volpi N · Osteoarthritis and Cartilage

The study the chondroitin field's absorption claims rest on. Plasma chondroitin sulfate rose more than 200% in all subjects, peaking at 2 hours, with the increase significant from 2 to 6 hours. The 0.3-5.3 ug/mL endogenous baseline it is measured against comes from six of the twenty, randomly selected for that measurement rather than from the whole group. The author reports the exogenous material as absorbed 'as a high molecular mass polysaccharide together with derivatives resulting from partial depolymerization and/or desulfation' — so some of what arrives is still a polysaccharide rather than free sugars.

Population

20 healthy Caucasian male volunteers aged 18-30, within 15% of ideal body weight

Intervention

Single 4 g oral dose of bovine chondroitin sulfate (Condrosulf)

Limitations

Uncontrolled single-dose pharmacokinetics in 20 healthy volunteers with no joint endpoint. 4 g is three to five times a normal trial dose. The endogenous baseline rests on six subjects. Distinguishing exogenous from endogenous circulating chondroitin sulfate is the hard part of this measurement, and Jackson 2010 (pmid-19912983) reached the opposite conclusion using different methods. This study and the 2003 ichthyic-source one (pmid-12801483) are not independent: the later paper states its 20 volunteers were the same people.