Diameters of Collagen Fibrils grown in vitro (original) (raw)

Nature New Biology volume 246, pages 83–84 (1973)Cite this article

Abstract

THE aggregation in vitro of purified collagen from solution into native-type fibrils, each of typically uniform cross section and showing the characteristic 640–700 Å axial periodicity, has been extensively studied (for reviews see Wood1, Ramachandran2). We studied the growth of fibrils in sodium phosphate buffer at _p_H 7 turbidimetrically and morphologically by taking samples for electron microscopy at various known stages of precipitation. Although a broad range of fibril diameters was observed at all stages, the distribution was found to exhibit no significant change after less than one quarter of the collagen had precipitated. It is inferred that, once a collagen fibril has grown to a diameter somewhere in the range 600–2,400 Å, lateral growth ceases and the fibril grows only at the end regions where the diameter is smaller.

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Author notes

  1. JONATHAN B. L. BARD
    Present address: Department of Anatomy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rheumatism Research Centre, University of Manchester, M13 0JJ
    JONATHAN B. L. BARD & JOHN A. CHAPMAN
  2. MRC Clinical and Population Cytogenetics Unit, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU
    JONATHAN B. L. BARD

Authors

  1. JONATHAN B. L. BARD
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  2. JOHN A. CHAPMAN
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BARD, J., CHAPMAN, J. Diameters of Collagen Fibrils grown in vitro.Nature New Biology 246, 83–84 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio246083a0

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