The quiet threat: your liver and the amino acids in collagen
Your liver is the largest metabolic organ and your body's central detoxification plant. It works without pause, but modern life — stress, alcohol, sugar and environmental toxins — puts it under chronic strain. Today we are talking about a quiet enemy: liver fibrosis, the stage that precedes cirrhosis. This article looks at the role the amino acids from collagen play in liver metabolism and what has been studied about it.
A liver under constant strain: from fatty liver to fibrosis
Many people underestimate how quickly the liver responds to strain. When it is overwhelmed, a damaging process begins, in four stages:
Stage 1: simple fatty liver (steatosis)
This is the relatively harmless accumulation of fat in liver cells. At this stage fatty liver is often still reversible. The usual cause is an excess of simple carbohydrates and fructose, leading to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Stage 2: liver inflammation (steatohepatitis, NASH)
When the stored fat leads to inflammation, we speak of NASH. In non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, messenger substances from immune and fat cells play a part; they go along with a mild but lasting inflammation.[1]
Stage 3: liver fibrosis — the turning point
Chronic inflammation forces special cells in the liver, the hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), into activity. When the liver is injured, these cells are activated and start to form scar tissue.[2] This scarring of the liver is called liver fibrosis.
Stage 4: cirrhosis
Fibrosis progresses, destroys the liver's normal architecture and leads to irreversible loss of function (cirrhosis). Cirrhosis can lead to end-stage liver disease.[3]
The molecular story: glycine, an amino acid from collagen
What stands out about collagen is above all its high glycine content. Collagen is roughly one third glycine.
Glycine and detoxification (phase II)
Your liver detoxifies in two phases. Glycine is involved in the second phase.
Glycine's role in glutathione synthesis
Glutathione is the most powerful antioxidant your liver makes itself. It is made of three amino acids: glutamate, cysteine and glycine.[4]
Conjugating and excreting toxins
In phase II of detoxification, toxins — certain medicines, environmental toxins or metabolic by-products — are "conjugated": bound to molecules such as glutathione or glycine itself, and thereby made water-soluble. In a process called glycine conjugation, benzoic acid is bound to glycine and turned into hippurate. Hippurate dissolves more easily in water and can leave the body in urine; that is why the process is regarded as a detoxification pathway.[5]
Glycine and liver cells
Glycine is also studied directly in relation to liver cells (hepatocytes).
Stabilising the hepatocyte membrane
A review describes how glycine curbed the formation of free radicals and inflammatory messenger substances in certain immune cells (scavenger cells called macrophages).[6] Both are produced in larger amounts during inflammation and can damage tissue. What was studied was glycine as a single substance on cells, not collagen as a supplement.
Modulating the inflammatory response
In experiments on rats, glycine in the feed most likely made certain immune cells of the liver (Kupffer cells) less active, according to the researchers.[7] Kupffer cells are scavenger cells in the liver that release messenger substances during inflammation. These were animal experiments; no dependable statement for humans can be drawn from them.
You have seen that glycine is one of the building blocks of glutathione. Our Multi Collagen Powder from the Kollagen Institut contains hydrolysed collagen peptides; like all collagen, they are rich in glycine.
In practice
What should you look for when you take collagen? It mostly comes down to the form you take it in.
The form of collagen
With form, the main question is absorption.
Hydrolysed collagen
Always choose hydrolysed collagen (peptides) with a low molecular weight (< 2,000 daltons). After healthy volunteers took gelatin hydrolysate, small collagen fragments (peptides) were found in their blood, with the highest levels after one to two hours.[8] So collagen is not only broken down into single amino acids; part of it reaches the blood as short fragments. What these fragments do in the body or in the liver was not examined in the study.
Our Kollagen Institut powder contains hydrolysed collagen peptides. Our products are also free of unnecessary additives.
Other nutrients
These nutrients also play a part in detoxification:
Selenium and B vitamins for detoxification
Selenium is an essential cofactor for glutathione peroxidase, the enzyme that uses glutathione to neutralise free radicals. To process the amino acid methionine, the liver depends on folate (vitamin B9) and vitamins B6 and B12.[9]
Conclusion: collagen and the liver
What this means for your liver health
Collagen is more than a protein source: it is particularly rich in glycine. Glycine is involved in phase II detoxification and is one of the three amino acids the body uses to make glutathione. What follows from that for the liver is still being studied, and it is no substitute for medical treatment.
With supplements, it pays to look at quality. The Kollagen Institut offers hydrolysed collagen peptides. The ingredient list shows exactly what each product contains.
What to look for
If you take collagen, you can pay attention to these points:
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Take it regularly: daily, in the amount stated on the product.
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Check the quality: low molecular weight and high purity, tested for heavy metals.