"The structure of collagen"

Date:
1956-1957
Reference:
PP/CRI/H/2/18
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: "The structure of collagen". Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    could form a hydrogen bond with a gxrara neighbouring grooup of three chains. In Collagen I, on the other hand, it appears possible to make a hydrogen bond within the group of three chains, since the OH of the hypro lies at a suitable distance from the CO of one of the other two chains. It thus becomes important to know whether the apparant stabilisation of the collagen structure by hydroxyproline (G-ustavson,1953,1955 and 1956; Takahashi and ! ïanaka,1953) persists into dilute solutions in which the groups of three chains are too far apart from each other to be in contact. The present position can therefore be summarized as follows: only two structures, closely related, appear possible for collagen. One of these, Structure II, seems to fit the data for stretched collagen better than the other. What proportion, if any, of Structure I exists in collagen, under different conditions, remains to be discovered.