Abstract
Collagen structure of young and old rats was examined by using atomic force microscope (AFM) images. Rat tail tendons of eight and twenty- four month- old Wistar rats were digested enzymatically (pepsin), and allowed to refibrillate for 24 hours at 37 °C. The samples were examined using a Nanoscope III (Digital Instruments, Santa Barbara, CA, U.S.A.) with a J scanning head and a 200 μm silicon nitride cantilever. The study was performed in air and without filters. The AFM inspection of refibrillated collagen produced images showing long fibrils with relatively homogeneous heights and widths, characterized by clear banding with a periodic interval (D band) of 67 nm. With respect to collagen extracted from young rats, collagen extracted from old rats revealed fibrils exhibiting the same band interval, but with lower widths and heights. Furthermore, the depth of gap between two overlaps showed a higher mean value in the aged rats. These data are consistent with biochemical reports of collagen modifications during aging; we suggest that post- synthetic reactions might be responsible for this as they interfere with the refibrillation process and also modify the three- dimensional structure of fibrils.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Masoro E.J.: Biology of aging. Arch. Intern. Med. 147: 166–169, 1987.
Eyre D.R.: Cross-linking in collagen and elastin. Ann. Rev. Biochem. 53: 717–748, 1984.
Fujimoto D.: Human tendon collagen: aging and crosslinking. Biomed. Res. 5: 279–282, 1984.
Schnider S.L., Kohn R.R.: Effect of age and diabetes mellitus on the solubility and nonenzymatic glucosylation of human skin collagen. J. Clin. Invest. 67: 1630–1635, 1981.
Bochantin J., Mays L.L.: Age-dependence of collagen tail fiber breaking strength in Sprague-Dawley and Fisher 344 rats. Exp. Gerontol. 16: 101–106, 1981.
Kao K.T., Hilker D.M., McGavack T.H.: Connective tissue. V. Comparison of synthesis and turnover of collagen and elastin in tissues of rat at several ages. Proc. Soc. Exp. Mol. Med. 106: 335–338, 1961.
Binnig G., Quate C.F., Gerber C.: Atomic force microscope. Phys. Rev. Lett. 56: 930–933, 1986.
Radmacher M., Tillmann R.W., Fritz M., Gaub H.E.: From molecules to cells: imaging soft samples with the atomic force microscope. Science 257: 1900–1905, 1992.
Williams B.R., Gelman R.A., Poppke D.C., Piez K.A.: Collagen fibril formation. J. Biol. Chem. 253: 6578–6585, 1978.
Keller D.: Reconstruction of STM and AFM images distorted by finite-size tips. Surf. Sci. 253: 353–364, 1991.
Siegel S.: Nonparametric statistics: for behavioral sciences. McGraw Hill Inc., New York, 1956.
Chernoff E.A.G., Chemoff D.A.: Atomic force microscope images of collagen fibers. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. 10: 596–599, 1992.
Hansma P.K., Elings V.B., Marti O., Bracker C.E.: Scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy: application to biology and technology. Science 242: 209–216, 1988.
Zasadzinski J.A.N., Hansma P.K.: Scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy of biological surfaces. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 589: 476–491, 1990.
Haggerty L., Lenhoff A.M.: STM and AFM in biotechnology. Biotechnol. Prog. 9: 1–11, 1993.
Hulmes D.S., Miller A.: Quasi-hexagonal molecular packing in collagen fibrils. Nature 282: 878–880, 1979.
Van Der Rest M., Garrone R.: Collagen family of proteins. FASEBJ. 5: 2814–2823, 1991.
Hulmes D.J., Jesior J.C., Miller A., Berthet-Colominas C., Wolff C.: Electron microscopy shows periodic structure in collagen cross section. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 78: 3567–3571, 1981.
Rathi A.N., Padmavathi S., Chandrakasan G.: Influence of monosaccharides on the fibrillogenesis of type I collagen. Biochem. Med. Metab. Biol. 42: 209–215, 1989.
Notbohm H., Mosler S., Muller P.K., Brinkmann J.: In vitro formation and aggregation of heterotypic collagen I and III fibrils. Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 15: 299–304, 1993.
Kikugawa K., Beppu M.: Involvement of lipid oxidation products in the formation of fluorescent and cross-linked proteins. Chem. Phys. Lipids 44: 277–296, 1987.
Sell D.R., Monnier V.M.: Structure elucidation of a senescent cross-link from human extracellular matrix. J. Biol. Chem. 264: 21597–21602, 1989.
Hayase F., Nagaraj R.H., Miyata S., Njoroge F.G., Monnier V.M.: Aging of proteins: immunological detection of a glucose-derived pyrrole formed during Maillard reaction in vivo. J. Biol. Chem. 263: 3758–3764, 1989.
Stadtman E.R.: Protein oxidation and aging. Science 257: 1220–1224, 1992.
Tanaka S., Avigad G., Brodsky B., Eikenberry E.F.: Glycation induces expansion of the molecular packing of collagen. J. Mol. Biol. 203: 495–505, 1988.
Yang J., Tamm L.K., Somlyo A.P., Shao Z.: Promises and problems of biological atomic force microscopy. J. Microsc. 171: 183–198, 1993.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Odetti, P., Aragno, I., Altamura, F. et al. Study of aging rat tail collagen using atomic force microscope. Aging Clin Exp Res 7, 352–357 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324345
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324345