Analysis of bimodal thermally-induced denaturation of type I collagen extracted from calfskin

Abstract

The most widely occurring collagen in the extracellular matrix of the mammalian tissues – type I collagen has attracted huge interest from both theoretical and practical points of view. The results presented herein are mainly confined to a study of the thermal stability of type I collagen (CI) extracted from calfskin in acidic solutions (10⁻² M HCl). A two-step process associated with the heat-induced denaturation of CI was revealed by using ultra sensitive differential scanning calorimetry. The minor endothermic transition (peak temperatures of about 30.5–30.8 °C) has been assigned to the defibrillation of small supramolecular CI assemblies (occurring in solution) while the major endothermic transition (about 34.8–35.0 °C) has been ascribed to denaturation of CI, consisting of a complete unfolding of the native triple-helical conformation of the collagen molecule. The calorimetric data were supported by information obtained from capillary viscometry performed on the same solutions. The native state of CI (molecular integrity and triple-helical conformation) for all the systems studied in this paper was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy, ultraviolet circular dichroism and capillary viscometry. At the same time, based on the sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and an appropriate image processing of the corresponding electropherogram, a certain degree of intramolecular crosslinking of CI was detected, mainly between α1 and α2 chains of the collagen triple-helix. Such a feature seems to be caused by both the nature of the extraction procedure and the storage conditions.