Water Solubility Promotes Bioavailability
Why is Marine collagen more absorbable by your cells compared to bovine collagen? It’s not because of each collagens’ molecular size instead it has to do with water solubility.
If you’ve researched marine collagen, you’ve most likely seen a statistic stating that marine collagen is 1.5x more absorbable than bovine collagen (1). Yet, the study didn’t provide the ‘why’ marine collagen is more absorbable to efficiently pass through your cells.
Without research, we assumed the bioavailability was because of a lower molecular size hydrolyzed marine collagen vs. hydrolyzed bovine collagen. After research, we found this assumption was incorrect.
Our research found that the molecular size of our (cofo) marine (100% wild-caught fish skin) collagen is 3000 Da (Daltons). Daltons refer to a proteins molecular weight or molecular mass. Compare our collagens’ Da to the molecular size of bovine collagen which is 1000 Da (Daltons). As you can see, marine collagen has a higher molecular weight.
This made us curious! What is the reason marine collagen more bioavailable to your cells?
The answer is found when determining which collagen has higher water solubility since the cell perimeter (cell membrane) is water based. Each cells membrane acts as a barrier to keep unwanted materials from coming in, and wanted materials from leaking out (2).
Bovine collagen is from cow hide. What do we use cow hide for? Shoes, jackets - applications that protect us from adverse weather. As you might guess, bovine collagen has a lower water solubility than marine collagen. Our collagen is from 100% fish skin from saltwater Pollock. In order for this fish to extract salt from their bodies (from the salt water they drink) their skin is a conduit for osmosis that leads to water moving from their bodies to the water around them (3). As a result of the skins need to extract water, our marine collagen is highly water soluble. This means our collagen can easily pass through the cell membrane water barrier into your cells to repair & regenerate.
For the reason of bioavailability, we chose saltwater, wild-caught, non-gmo fish skin that has a high water solubility to quickly pass through your cell membrane to give joints, bones, and skin the support and repair they crave.
References
1. Marine Collagen Absorption: https://file.scirp.org/Html/13-2701752_61421.htm
2. Cell Membrane: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/ahp/CellBio/Depts/CB_membrane.html
3. Fish Osmosis: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/you-asked/do-fish-drink#:~:text=Fish%20do%20absorb%20water%20through,concentrations%20in%20the%20two%20areas.
