[Bone and Nutrition. Functional foods for bone and cartilage tissues : Evidence for the action of collagen peptides].

Collagen peptides, including glucosamine, are well-known functional food materials that act on bone and cartilage tissues. Collagen peptides are used at a volume of about 6,000 tons per year as a raw material in Japan. Evidence for the action of collagen peptides for both bone and cartilage tissues has accumulated both at basic research level (in vivo and in vitro ) and clinically. To confirm the clinical effect of these peptides and clearly identify their mechanism of action at the molecular level, further clinical studies comprising disease-free subjects, alongside basic research studies, are required.