title: Human collagen digestion: II. Theoretical model and application to data.
abstract: A kinetic mechanism for the digestion of collagen by bacterial collagenase has been proposed which is consistent with experimental data. Arguments are presented justifying the application of a homogeneous approach to the digestion of insoluble collagen. The mechanism takes account of increased kinetic blockages with aging and enzyme complexity. It is shown to be applicable to collagen from various tissues, including relatively impure preparations. However, the mechanism is not applicable to collagen from the immature period of the lifespan. Kinetic blockages are shown to increase three- to four-fold from age 20 to 70 years, within the main helical region of the collagen molecule. There is no increase of kinetic blockages in the N-terminal region of the molecule over this age range.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D001665:Binding Sites; D003094:Collagen / Q000378:metabolism*; D004063:Digestion; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D003012:Microbial Collagenase / Q000378:metabolism; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D011487:Protein Conformation
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen; D003012:Microbial Collagenase