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Elongational flow studies on type IV collagen: Comparison with type I
Author(s) -
Barnard K.,
Atkins E. D. T.,
Taylor M. A.,
Gathercole L. J.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.360330605
Subject(s) - chemistry , flow birefringence , type i collagen , elongation , birefringence , type (biology) , strain (injury) , molecule , plateau (mathematics) , tangent , flow (mathematics) , dispersity , biophysics , polymer chemistry , mechanics , composite material , polymer , optics , materials science , geometry , mathematical analysis , mathematics , physics , anatomy , organic chemistry , medicine , ecology , pathology , biology , ultimate tensile strength
Elongational flow techniques have been used to investigate the birefringent response of monodisperse type IV collagen in dilute solution and the results compared with type I. collagen. A four‐roll mill apparatus was used to characterize the solutions at low strain rates, \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$\dot{\varepsilon}$\end{document} ⩾ 300 s −1 . The birefringence is nonlocalized and rises gradually to a plateau value, in accordance with rigid‐rod behavior. The gradients of the tangent to the curves at zero strain rate are estimated for types IV and I collagen. The concentrations of the solutions used were in the dilute to semidilute regimes. Using a value of 300 nm for the length of type I collagen, values of 364–408 nm were calculated for the length of the type IV collagen molecule, depending on the concentration regime chosen, which is consistent with biochemical predictions based on a rigid molecule. The results imply that the behavior of type IV collagen molecules in solution is similar to type I collagen, despite the presence of several sequence interruptions in the type IV helix. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.