Iris Publishers- Open access Journal of Nutrition & Food Science | Collagen: Building Nature’s Infrastructure

Authored by... Russell M Jaffe

 

Collagen has been a personal passion of mine since graduate school where my thesis tells the story of how collagen and elastin cross-links are affected by d-penicillamine, a remarkable amino acid. Collagen has been around since metazoan times. Its structure is elegantly simple and simply elegant. Glycine-proline-Any amino acid is a base unit that, when repeated about 1,000 times, becomes one strand of collagen. Three strands wind together to make a single collagen molecule. Collagen is a major part of the infrastructure of all mammals, fish, birds, and crustacean. The infrastructure includes bones and joints, arteries and veins, tendons and fascia. The orienting basement membrane that every cell receives nourishment from and exports metabolic products and wastes has a specialized collagen core.Acupuncture meridians or channels may actually be specialized collagen fibrils. The sentinel cells that emerge from the notochord in early gestation leave a collagen fibril as they migrate to all the systems of the body. Collagen is piezoelectric and this may be important in how acupuncture information is transferred so quickly throughout the body. Piezoelectric means that when compressed, a tiny yet measurable electrical current flows through that specific collagen fibril. The body’s glycosaminoglycans functionally insulate and isolate collagen fibrils. Fibrils of collagen can be referred to as tactoids because they are narrow yet long. A silk thread is a metaphor for collagen. The fibrils are able to coil back on themselves and then stretch out depending on the biomechanical situation. If collagen is simply elegant ropes, elastin is diaphanous rubber bands. The cross-links in connective tissue are derived from the amino acid lysine. The epsilon amino group is removed. Aminoadipic acid semi-aldehyde is formed. From desmosines to lysinonorleucine, the cross-links are all derived from lysine. People who follow the Alkaline Way have diets that are naturally rich in alkaline amino acids such as lysine. Only in an alkaline cell environment is elective, essential protein like collagen produced.

 

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