title: Studies on structural changes of collagen in silicosis.
abstract: In order to provide scientific information on the prevention and treatment of silicosis, studies about changes of silicotic collagen in lungs were carried out. In this paper, we present experiments about the structural changes of collagen in silicotic lungs of rats and patients. These included electron microscopy, circular dichroism and infrared spectroscopy studies of collagen fibers. The results indicated that fibers of silicotic collagen were shorter in length, smaller in diameter and decreased in alpha-helix content. The -Si-O-R- group and -OH group were found increased and -C-C- backbone shortened. The increase of -Si-O-R- group indicated that silica formed linking bridges between collagens which may be the cause of progressive enlargement of nodules.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational Medicine, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine Beijing.
authors.forename: Y R
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: B Z
authors.initials: BZ
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D011487:Protein Conformation; D051381:Rats; D012829:Silicosis / Q000473:pathology*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen