The Impact of Ageing on Fibrillar Collagens

The world population is ageing rapidly. The over-60s now outnumber the under- 5s, and 1 in 6 people will be over 60 by 2030 (WHO). Collagen is a key structural component of many tissues and organs, and although a fraction of the collagenous component of tissues is remarkably long-lived, it progressively accumulates damage over a lifetime. The capacity for new collagen synthesis and post-translational modification is altered and dysregulated during ageing. The mature crosslinks that stabilise collagenous tissues can remain stable or increase with age, whereas age-related glycation end-products can increase and affect tissue biomechanics. At the fibrillar nanoscale, changes associated with ageing and disease influence fibril deformation and stress transfer in a tissue-specific manner. Age-related loss of collagen can be caused by proteolytic degradation, but normal collagen turnover is also affected by ageing and its dysregulation is detrimental to tissue homeostasis. Age-related accumulation of senescent cells may contribute to the aberrant turnover of collagen during ageing. Finally, collagen itself may hold the key to counteracting some of the detrimental effects of ageing, with ingested hydrolysed collagen peptides demonstrating beneficial effects on skin and the musculoskeletal system.