The study was published in the European Journal of Nutrition. It was the work of researchers associated with the University of Toulouse in France as well as employees of French ingredients supplier Weishardt International, which funded the study.
The test material was Weishardt’s Naticol Gut, which is one of company’s line of marine collagen peptides. Weishardt derives the collagen raw material from the skins of selected warm water fish species.
Ingredient family under development for more than a decade
The ingredient has been under development for years and has been on the US market since at least 2012. Lately, Weishardt has been building out the science suite backing the ingredient. In 2018 the company published a study on the ingredient’s effects in the realm of metabolic disorders, whereas the most recent study focuses on gut inflammation.
To test the effects of marine collagen peptides in this area the researchers designed a short term mouse study. It employed a special experimental mouse strain described as ‘mannose receptor-deficient in the myeloid lineage C57BL/6,’ which is a mouse model of intestinal inflammation. Several tests of how the fish collagen peptides were performed.
To mimic the effects of colitis, the mice were dosed with dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) mixed into their drinking water for eight days, with one group also receiving the fish collagen peptides.
A control group of mice had only drinking water. To test other parameters of inflammation the mice received DSS laced water along with liposomal clodronate injections or, in another group, were injected with 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (TNBS). Animals were monitored daily for weight loss and signs of colitis (diarrhea, bloody stools).