Role of Collagen Derivatives in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Repair: A Systematic Scoping Review With Evidence Mapping

Honvo G, Lengelé L, Charles A, Reginster JY, Bruyère O · Rheumatology and Therapy

Contains the single most revealing sentence in the collagen literature, quoted verbatim: 'All in vivo preclinical studies and clinical trials, regardless of their quality, concluded on beneficial effects of collagen derivatives in OA and cartilage repair, whether used as nutritional supplement or delivered intra-articularly, and whatever the manufacturers of the products, the doses and the outcomes considered in each study.' A field in which no study ever reaches a negative conclusion is displaying publication bias, not consistency. Concludes collagen derivatives cannot yet be recommended by large scientific societies.

Population

10,834 records screened to 41 studies — 16 preclinical, 25 clinical including 4 systematic reviews or meta-analyses

Intervention

Collagen hydrolysate and undenatured collagen, oral and intra-articular

Limitations

A scoping review with evidence mapping, not a meta-analysis — it charts the literature rather than pooling effects, so it produces no effect estimate. From Bruyère and Reginster's group in Liège, which has extensive nutraceutical-industry ties, making the observation more striking rather than less.