Molecular level detection and localization of mechanical damage in collagen enabled by collagen hybridizing peptides
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Molecular level detection.pdf
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1.87 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Zitnay, Jared L.
Li, Yang
San, Boi Hoa
Reese, Shawn P.
Yu, S. Michael
Weiss, Jeffrey A.
Qin, Zhao
Depalle, Baptiste Pierre Jean
Buehler, Markus J
Date Issued
March 2017
Journal
Nature Communications
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Zitnay, Jared L. et al. “Molecular Level Detection and Localization of Mechanical Damage in Collagen Enabled by Collagen Hybridizing Peptides.” Nature Communications 8 (2017): 14913.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Mechanical injury to connective tissue causes changes in collagen structure and material behaviour, but the role and mechanisms of molecular damage have not been established. In the case of mechanical subfailure damage, no apparent macroscale damage can be detected,
yet this damage initiates and potentiates in pathological processes. Here, we utilize collagen hybridizing peptide (CHP), which binds unfolded collagen by triple helix formation, to detect molecular level subfailure damage to collagen in mechanically stretched rat tail tendon
fascicle. Our results directly reveal that collagen triple helix unfolding occurs during tensile loading of collagenous tissues and thus is an important damage mechanism. Steered molecular dynamics simulations suggest that a likely mechanism for triple helix unfolding is
intermolecular shearing of collagen a-chains. Our results elucidate a probable molecular failure mechanism associated with subfailure injuries, and demonstrate the potential of CHP targeting for diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of tissue disease and injury.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14913
