Structure and assembly of the native collagen fibril.
Assembly in vitro of the native collagen fibril is a multistep process involving an initial intermediate of unknown structure, linear growth of thin filaments, lateral growth to form the fibril, and stabilization by covalent crosslinks. A model for the structure of the fibril is proposed consisting of a substructure of five-stranded microfibrils laterally compressed to place molecules in cross section on a near-hexagonal lattice.
D000818:Animals; D003094:Collagen / Q000502:physiology*; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D007700:Kinetics; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D051381:Rats; D013710:Tendons / Q000648:ultrastructure
D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D003094:Collagen