RESEARCH - Oral type II collagen in the treatment of RA. A six-month double blind placebo-controlled study.

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Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2000 Sep-Oct;18(5):571-7.

Oral type II collagen in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. A

six-month double blind placebo-controlled study.

Cazzola M, Antivalle M, Sarzi-Puttini P, Dell'Acqua D, Panni B, Caruso I.

Rheumatology Unit, Azienda Ospedaliera Polo Universitario L. Sacco,

Milan, Italy.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of oral chicken type II collagen

(CII) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Sixty

patients with clinically active RA of long duration (mean 7.2 +/- 5.5

years) were treated for 6 months with oral chicken CII at 0.25 mg/day

(n = 31) or with placebo (n = 29) in a double-blind randomized study.

RESULTS: The response rate to treatment of the collagen-treated group,

based on the ACR 20% criteria, was higher than that of the control

group but this difference was not statistically significant at any

time. Intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis did not show statistically

significant improvement in any of the several secondary outcome

measures over the 6 months of the study in the collagen-treated

patients in comparison with the placebo-treated group. However, in 2

collagen-treated patients we observed a clinical remission according

to the criteria of the American Rheumatism Association.

CONCLUSION: Our study seems to show that the oral treatment of RA

patients with chicken CII is ineffective and results in only small and

inconsistent benefits. Furthermore, our results raise the possibility

that in a sub-group of patients oral collagen administration, usually

considered devoid of harmful effects, may actually induce disease

flares.

PMID: 11072596

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11072596

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