Collagen

What is collagen?

Collagen is a hard, insoluble and fibrous protein that makes up one-third of the protein in the human body. ³ In the majority of collagens, the molecules are packed together to form very similar long thin fibrils.⁴

According to MediLexicon, collagen comprises a family of genetically distinct molecules, all of which have a unique triple helix configuration of three polypeptide subunits known as alpha-chains.⁵

Each chain contains around 1,000 amino acids, and usually features an amino acid sequence consisting of glycine, proline and hydroxyproline.¹¹

There are numerous different types of collagen, at least 16 types⁵, but 80-90% of collagens in the body belong to types I, II and III. The collagens in the human body are strong and flexible. Type I collagen fibrils are particularly tensile, and are stronger than steel, gram for gram.