title: Biochemical characterization of the fibres of collagen and elastin in the aortic wall of SHRSP.
abstract: 1. Vessel wall fragments consisting of collagen, elastin and other insoluble proteins were prepared from the aortas of 6 month old WKY and SHRSP and dead, elderly humans. 2. Prolonged incubations of these fragments with pepsin below or at 30 degrees C resulted in different amounts of insoluble materials containing similar or larger proportions of collagen and other insoluble proteins than the respective vessel fragments. The amounts of the pepsin-insoluble materials obtained from SHRSP were larger than those from WKY but were much smaller than those from elderly humans. 3. The elastins isolated from the vessel fragments were solubilized by pepsin much more effectively than the respective vessel fragments. 4. The pepsin-insoluble materials from WKY were composed of thin mesh-shaped materials, while these materials from both rats did not contain a significant number of distinctive fibrils of collagen, the materials from elderly humans did contain numerous distinctive fibrils of collagen. 5. Large fractions of both the collagen and other proteins in the pepsin-insoluble materials were solubilized by incubation with a crude bacterial collagenase below 30 degrees C or by incubation with pepsin above 40 degrees C where the triple-helical regions of the collagens were unfolded. 6. These results appear to indicate that the aortic wall of SHRSP contains larger amounts of some insoluble components that immobilize the collagen fibrils than that of WKY, but the aortic walls of elderly humans contain much larger amounts of these components than that of SHRSP.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Saga Medical School, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsumura
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawazoye
authors.forename: S F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takashima
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sunaga
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Toda
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fujitani
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Higashino
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003094:Collagen / Q000378:metabolism*; D004549:Elastin / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D011918:Rats, Inbred SHR; D011921:Rats, Inbred WKY
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen; D004549:Elastin