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A microscopic and macroscopic study of aging collagen on its molecular structure, mechanical properties, and cellular response

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posted on 2017-10-05, 15:54 authored by Sammy WilsonSammy Wilson, Marie Guilbert, Josep Sule-Suso, James Torbet, Pierre Jeannesson, Ganesh D. Sockalingum, Ying Yang
During aging, collagen structure changes, detrimentally affecting tissues' biophysical and biomechanical properties due to an accumulation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). In this investigation, we conducted a parallel study of microscopic and macroscopic properties of different-aged collagens from newborn to 2-yr-old rats, to examine the effect of aging on fibrillogenesis, mechanical and contractile properties of reconstituted hydrogels from these collagens seeded with or without fibroblasts. In addition to fibrillogenesis of collagen under the conventional conditions, some fibrillogenesis was conducted alongside a 12-T magnetic field, and gelation rate and AGE content were measured. A nondestructive indentation technique and optical coherence tomography were used to determine the elastic modulus and dimensional changes, respectively. It was revealed that in comparison to younger specimens, older collagens exhibited higher viscosity, faster gelation rates, and a higher AGE-specific fluorescence. Exceptionally, only young collagens formed highly aligned fibrils under magnetic fields. The youngest collagen demonstrated a higher elastic modulus and contraction in comparison to the older collagen. We conclude that aging changes collagen monomer structure, which considerably affects the fibrillogenesis process, the architecture of the resulting collagen fibers and the global network, and the macroscopic properties of the formed constructs.

Funding

Funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC; Swindon, UK) Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Regenerative Medicine (grant EP/F/500491/1), Alliance bilateral program (Egide and British Council) and the exchange program in EuroMagNET II (Grenoble, France) are gratefully acknowledged. M.G. is a recipient of a fellowship from the Région Champagne-Ardenne, France.

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

The FASEB Journal

Volume

28

Issue

1

Pages

14 - 25

Citation

WILSON, S. ... et al., 2014. A microscopic and macroscopic study of aging collagen on its molecular structure, mechanical properties, and cellular response. FASEB Journal, 28 (1), pp.14-25.

Publisher

© Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

Version

  • NA (Not Applicable or Unknown)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2014

Notes

This paper was submitted for publication in the journal FASEB Journal and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.13-227579

ISSN

0892-6638

eISSN

1530-6860

Language

  • en