Safety and efficacy of undenatured type II collagen in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee: a clinical trial

Crowley DC, Lau FC, Sharma P, et al. · International Journal of Medical Sciences

Within each group, UC-II cut total WOMAC by about 33% over 90 days and glucosamine+chondroitin by about 14%, with VAS falling 40% against 15% and Lequesne 20.1% against 5.9%. Between the groups, the paper reports no significant difference on any summary score: 'there were no between-group differences for any of the VAS components or summary scores', the same for Lequesne, and for WOMAC 'no further statistically significant differences for any other individual WOMAC components or summary scores'. What did separate were single WOMAC and VAS items — ascending stairs at days 30 and 60, night pain and resting pain at day 60, pain climbing stairs and difficulty walking on a flat surface at day 90.

Population

Adults with knee osteoarthritis

Intervention

UC-II (undenatured type II collagen) 40 mg/day for 90 days

Comparator

Glucosamine 1500 mg + chondroitin 1200 mg daily (no placebo arm)

Limitations

Small (n=52), no placebo arm, funded by InterHealth Nutraceuticals (UC-II's maker); the comparator itself performs near placebo in independent trials. Rescue medication use was heavily unequal and unadjusted: in the first 30 days 88.5% of the glucosamine+chondroitin group used it against 33.3% on UC-II, and the gap persisted to day 90. The headline percentages are within-group changes, so the trial's own between-group tests do not support ranking the two treatments.