Crystalline regions in collagen fibrils.
A new image processing technique, content-dependent anisotropic spatial frequency filtering, has been developed to visualize the location and orientation of crystalline regions in collagen fibril cross-sections. The results show that most crystalline regions are oriented with their approximately 4 nm periodicity directed radially from the fibril centre. This periodicity corresponds to the separation between rows of molecular ends in the quasi-hexagonal molecular packing scheme. The extent of crystallinity increases with radius and frequently the lattice is either continuously distorted or interrupted by sharp discontinuities.
D000818:Animals; D003094:Collagen; D003460:Crystallization; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D051381:Rats; D013623:Tail; D013710:Tendons / Q000648:ultrastructure*
D003094:Collagen