[The geroprotective effect of the amino acids and tripeptides in the cartilage tissue culture in rats]

Smirnov AV, Chalisova NI, Ryzhak GA, Kontsevaia EA, Voĭtsekhovskaia MA · Advances in Gerontology (Uspekhi Gerontologii)

Six amino acids raised the area index significantly in explants from young rats and one did in explants from old rats, which is the six-fold fall the paper reports. All three tripeptides worked at both ages: T-38 at 25±5% in young explants and 18±3% in old, T-33 at 18±2% and 15±2%, T-34 at 18±3% and 20±4%, each p<0.05 against control.

Population

500 organotypic explants of xiphoid-process cartilage from 3-month-old and 24-month-old male Wistar rats

Intervention

The 20 coded amino acids and three tripeptides synthesised at the institute — T-38 (Lys-Glu-Asp), T-33 (Glu-Asp-Arg) and T-34 (Glu-Asp-Gly) — screened from 0.01 to 10 ng/ml, with 0.05 ng/ml effective for all of them

Comparator

Untreated explants, against which the growth-zone area index is expressed

Limitations

None of the three tripeptides is AED: the paper names them as Lys-Glu-Asp, Glu-Asp-Arg and Glu-Asp-Gly, so this study does not test the Cartalax substance. The tissue is xiphoid-process cartilage rather than articular cartilage, and the endpoint is the area of the explant's growth zone — a proliferation readout with no matrix, synthesis or mechanical measure. The paper's own closing paragraph says five amino acids were active in young explants where its table marks six. Russian-language journal tied to the originating institute.