Bioavailability and Bioavailable Forms of Collagen after Oral Administration to Rats

The bioavailability and bioavailable forms of collagen after oral administration to rats were investigated in this study. The relative and absolute bioavailability of collagen were 57.8% and 49.6%, respectively, which was indirectly evaluated by the bioavailability of Hyp in collagen using a pharmacokinetic method. The amino acid profile of plasma showed that more than 63.4% of the collagen was absorbed from the intestine in the form of peptide, and there was a good linear correlation between the absorbed amount of an amino acid and its content in collagen (R(2) = 0.9225). The collagen peptides in plasma were purified by Sephadex G10 and Eclipse XDB C18 chromatography and further indentified (Ala-Asn, Ala-Hyp-Gly, Asp-Glu, Glu-Asn, Glu-Asp, Glu-Met, Gly-Pro-Hyp, Leu-Hyp, Leu-Met, Phe-Gly-Asn, Pro-Gly-Leu, Pro-Leu, Ser-Gly-Met, Ser-Hyp, Ser-Pro-Gly, Tyr-Met) with UPLC-ESI-MS. These results may help to speculate about the molecular mechanism behind the physiological effects of collagen after oral administration.