Type I fibrillar collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body, crucial for the formation and strength of bones, skin, and tendon. Proteolytic enzymes are essential for initiation of the assembly of collagen fibrils by cleaving off the propeptides. We report that Mep1a(-/-) and Mep1b(-/-) mice revealed lower amounts of mature collagen I compared with WT mice and exhibited significantl...

Collagens and gelatins were isolated from human post-menopausal uterus, puerperal (post-partum) uterus, rheumatoid-arthritis-nodule and ox tendon. Different means of purifying collagen were studied and a method was devised that enables highly purified collagen to be obtained, even from the uterus. This method involves the use of a number of aqueous and organic extractants as well as digestion w...

Pertinent issues of collagen antigenicity and immunogenicity are concisely reviewed as they relate to the design and application of biomedical devices. A brief discussion of the fundamental concepts of collagen immunochemistry is presented, with a subsequent review of documented clinical responses to devices containing reconstituted soluble or solubilized collagen. The significance of atelocoll...

Background: Alteration in polymorphism of tissue collagens has been reported in association with some genetic and metabolic disorders. These alterations can be estimated quantitatively by measuring alpha-chain monomers derived from the polymeric form of collagens following treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). We studied the rate of placental colla...

PURPOSE To determine whether aging vitreous collagen fibrils undergo ultrastructural changes that might underlie vitreous liquefaction and posterior vitreous detachment. METHODS Vitreous collagen fibrils from 21 human subjects (age range, 3-89 years) and from bovine eyes were isolated on electron microscopy grids. Cupromeronic blue labeling in the presence of 0.3 M MgCl(2) and immunogold labe...

PURPOSE The collagen structure of the human peripapillary sclera plays a significant role in determining optic nerve head (ONH) biomechanics, and is therefore of interest in the study of glaucoma. The aim of the current work was to map the anisotropic collagen structure of the normal human peripapillary sclera as a function of tissue depth. METHODS Wide-angle x-ray scattering was used to quan...

Studies on the collagen system of the human myocardium are still limited compared to those on small laboratory animals. The aim of this work was to observe the collagen tissue of the myocardium of the human heart as a function of age. The types of collagen, as well as the density of collagen tissue and the diameter of collagen fibrils, were examined. Fragments of the left ventricular wall from ...

Different types of collagen vary in their influence on platelet reactivity. Collagen Types III, IV, and V were obtained from human placental tissue, and Type I collagen was prepared from rat skin. Each collagen type was coated onto a plastic surface. Each collagen-coated surface or appropriate plastic surface control was studied using citrated human 51Cr-labeled platelet-rich plasma in both the...

The present work was designed to investigate the capacity of trophozoites of Entamoeba histolytica to adhere to and digest human collagen types I and III in vitro. The time-course of binding of ameba to both human collagen types I and III was similar. However, the kinetics of detachment were different for each collagen type. Trophozoites of E. histolytica cultured on heat-reconstituted type I c...