The Interaction of Mucoprotein With Soluble Collagen; An Electron Microscope Study

The collagen of certain forms of connective tissue, such as rat tail tendon and the fish swin bladder (ichthyocol), dissolve in dilute acid to yield a clear, relatively viscous solution. When NaCl is added to such a solution to a concentration of 0.2-1.0%, or if the solution be neutralized, a fibrous precipitate of collagen is produced.l-3 Electron microscope studies have demonstrated that the reconstituted fibrils show the axial period and intraperiod fine structure typical of native collagen fibrils although the acid filtrate contains only very thin filaments.4 5 The process by which the thin filaments in the acid filtrate aggregate laterally to produce the typical collagen structure is of interest not only from the physical chemical point of view but also because a better understanding of the phenomenon may provide clues as to the mechanism of fibrogenesis in vivo. Investigations of the process of fibril reconstitution from acid filtrates of collagen by the