What do amino acids in collagen do?

Relevant studies have demonstrated that collagen has become one of the most abundant proteins for humans, which involves more than 30% of your body’s proteins. It can exist in our skin, bones, muscles, blood vessels, tendons, joints, teeth, and other tissues. Therefore, it plays a critical role in supporting our skin, protection, and maintenance of tissues and organs. Now, let’s see what are the amino acids in collagen.

What are the amino acids in collagen?

We all know there are various amino acids in collagen.

Collagen consists of several specific amino acids. With a unique triple helix structure different from other proteins, they are glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline (Hyp) accounting for 57% of the total amino acids of collagen.

It is widely known that collagen stands for the main component of the extracellular matrix, that is, structural proteins. Moreover, it is also the body’s highest content and distribution of the most widely distributed functional proteins, which is critical to the maintenance of connective tissues, normal structure, and strength. In the following part, let’s explore the function of amino acids in collagen.

What can amino acids in collagen do?

It is known that glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline play a critical role in collagen. The insufficient availability of these materials in your body will make collagen synthesis and regeneration difficult. Therefore, it can be seen these amino acids are essential for the synthesis of collagen. Most proteins contain only a small amount of glycine; however, collagen is an important exception, with glycine, a specific amino acid, making up 1/3 of the entire composition of collagen. Now, let’s see the function of glycine first.

Glycine is the smallest molecular weight amino acid in the amino acid composition of collagen, with a single hydrogen atom as its side chain. Due to the very small side bond of glycine, it can occupy space in collagen synthesis that other amino acids can not, such as as an amino acid within the collagen helix, and this property predestines glycine to be an important key to the synthesis of collagen, and thus glycine is the most important amino acid in collagen synthesis, and is an important exception. One of the essential roles of glycine is that it reduces the water solubility of collagen by a factor of one hundred.

Of all the amino acids that form collagen, proline has probably received the most attention for its impact on promoting skin health. The body’s need for amino acids such as proline increases as we age or experience certain health problems. People with poor skin health, slow healing, joint pain, gastrointestinal problems, and those at high risk for heart disease may all derive health benefits from getting more of this amino acid. Proline is a sub amino acid - very similar to amino acids and is often referred to as the “basic building block of protein”. Proline’s structure is unique because it is the only proteogenic amino acid (a type of protein formed biosynthetically) that has a secondary amine. It helps to “build” collagen and also acts as a catalyst in many organic reactions. Proline is so important; along with glycine, it is the primary amino acid involved in collagen synthesis. Proline makes up about 15% of the amino acid composition of collagen. Proline can be converted into hydroxylysine and hydroxyproline in the body to help form collagen.

Hydroxyproline is also a major component of collagen, accounting for approximately 14% of the total amino and sialic acid content of collagen. Hydroxyproline (Hyp) is essential for the proper formation of collagen fibers. It is produced by post-translational modification of proline by the enzyme 4-prolyl hydroxylase and hydroxyproline is only uniquely present in young skin.

People tend to attach great importance to hydroxyproline, because it is the need for ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in our diet, whose deficiency leads to scurvy (a disease characterized by the general degeneration of connective tissue). Moreover, Vitamin C acts as a cofactor for prolyl hydroxylase, which is necessary for proline hydroxylation, and deficiency leads to impaired collagen synthesis.

Conclusion

In this passage, we have talked about what do amino acids in collagen do. Through the above introductions, we can find that glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline are the main components of the collagen amino acid sequence. The skin inevitably needs these essential amino acids in the right proportions to produce these skin cells. These essential amino acids will stimulate the accumulation of collagen. For this reason, it is advised to use it moderately in daily life to completely gain its health benefits.