The constitution and biophysical properties of extracellular matrices can dramatically influence cellular phenotype during development, homeostasis, or pathogenesis. These effects can be signaled through a differentially regulated assembly of collagen fibrils, orchestrated by a family of collagenassociated Small Leucine-Rich Proteins, SLRPs. In this report, we describe the tissue-specific expre...

Fibronectin (FN) assembly into extracellular matrix is tightly regulated and essential to embryogenesis and wound healing. FN fibrillogenesis is initiated by cytoskeleton-derived tensional forces transmitted across transmembrane integrins onto RGD binding sequences within the tenth FN type III (10FNIII) domains. These forces unfold 10FNIII to expose cryptic FN assembly sites; however, a specifi...

Under conditions of acidic pH and elevated temperature, insulin partially unfolds and aggregates into highly structured amyloid fibrils. Aggregation of insulin leads to loss of activity and can trigger an unwanted immune response. Compounds that prevent protein aggregation have been used to stabilize insulin; these compounds generally suppress aggregation only at relatively high inhibitor conce...

Mai Suan Li, Nguyen Truong Co, Govardhan Reddy, C-K. Hu, J. E. Straub, and D. Thirumalai Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland Saigon Institute for Computational Science and Technology, 6 Quarter, Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Biophysics Program, Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Mary...

It is generally postulated that the amyloid beta protein (Abeta) plays a central role in the progressive neurodegeneration observed in Alzheimer's disease. Important pathologic properties of this protein, such as neurotoxicity and resistance to proteolytic degradation, depend on the ability of Abeta to form beta-sheet structures or amyloid fibrils. We report that melatonin, a hormone recently f...

Fibronectin (Fn), a high molecular weight glycoprotein, is a central element of extracellular matrix architecture that is involved in several fundamental cell processes. In the context of bone biology, little is known about the influence of the mineral surface on fibronectin supramolecular assembly. We investigate fibronectin morphological properties induced by its adsorption onto a model miner...