A morphological analysis of collagen extracted from bovine Achilles tendon
Menicagli, C.; Giorgi, F.
Il Farmaco; Edizione Pratica 43(6): 213-221
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0430-0912 PMID: 3229491 Document Number: 314311
Collagen extracted with 0.5 N acetic acid from bovine Achilles tendon was analyzed morphologically in order to verify whether the periodical fibrillar pattern is maintained unmodified at the end of the extraction process. Accordingly, samples were analyzed with an electron microscope after being (1) fixed in glutaraldehyde-osmium fixatives and embedded in epoxy resins; (2) stained negatively with phosphotungstic acid, and (3) coated with a thin platinum film in an evaporation chamber. The results obtained show that the method employed to extract collagen from bovine Achilles tendon is sufficiently mild to avoid denaturation of the basic structural unit of the collagen fibril and to maintain it in the form of a triple stranded helix. So at the end of the extraction process, the protein is morphologically unaltered.