Abstract
Studies of the optical birefringence of solutions of acid‐soluble collagen from rat‐tail tendon at 22°C in the pH range 1.0–6.0 show that collagen exhibits an isotropic to mesophase transition only between pH 2.4 and 3.0 at 10% weight concentration. Such liquid crystalline order is probably essential for the orientation of collagen in a magnetic field. When solutions of neutral salt‐soluble collagen were precipitated at pH 7.0 by warming to 37°C (“heat gelling”) in a magnetic field of ca. 20 kG, the resulting fibrils wee oriented perpendicular to the direction of the field. Heat gelling is shown to be a useful technique for maintaining the orientation induced in precursor solutions even after the sample is removed from the magnetic field.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 1261-1267 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Biopolymers |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1984 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Biophysics
- Biochemistry
- Biomaterials
- Organic Chemistry