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This study investigated the effects of collagen hydrolysates (CH) on language cognitive function and brain structure. In this open-label study, 5 g CH was administered once a day for 4 weeks to 30 healthy participants aged 49–63 years. The primary outcome measures were the brain healthcare quotients based on gray matter volume (GM-BHQ) and fractional anisotropy (FA-BHQ). The secondary outcome measures were changes in scores between week 0 and week 4 for word list memory (WLM) and standard verbal paired associate learning (S-PA) tests as well as changes in the physical, mental, and role/social component summary scores of the Short Form-36(SF-36) quality of life instrument. CH ingestion resulted in significant improvements in FA-BHQ (p = 0.0095), a measure of brain structure, as well in scores for the WLM (p = 0.0046) and S-PA (p = 0.0007) tests, which measure cognitive function. There were moderate correlations between the change in WLM score and the change in GM-BHQ (r = 0.4448; Spearman's rank correlation) and between the change in S-PA score and the change in FA-BHQ (r = 0.4645). Daily ingestion of CH changed brain structure and improved language cognitive function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypertrophic scars found on the human body rarely develop in experimental animals, possibly due to their looser skin structure. This makes it difficult to understand the genesis of scar lesions. Therefore, appropriate animal models are urgently needed. In this study, we established a novel experimental model of a scar-forming wound by resecting a small portion of the abdominal muscle wall on the lower center of the abdomen in C57BL/6N mice, which are exposed to contractive forces by the surrounding muscle tissue. As a low-tension control, a back skin excision model was used with a splint fixed onto the excised skin edge, and granulation tissue formed on the muscle fascia supported by the back skeleton. One week after the resection, initial healing reactions, such as fibroblast proliferation, occurred in both models. However, after 21 days, lesions with collagen-rich granulation tissues, which were also accompanied by multiple nodular/spherical-like structures, developed only in the abdominal wall model. These lesions were analogous to scar lesions in humans. Therefore, the animal model developed in this study is unique in that fibrous scar tissues form under physiological conditions without using any artificial factors and is valuable for studying the pathogenesis and preclinical treatment of scar lesions.