Osmotic pressure induced tensile forces in tendon collagen
Water is an important component of collagen in tendons, but its role for the function of this load-carrying protein structure is poorly understood. Here we use a combination of multi-scale experimentation and computation to show that water is an integral part of the collagen molecule, which changes...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Nature Publishing Group
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96407 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4173-9659 |
| _version_ | 1826191205617106944 |
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| author | Masic, Admir Bertinetti, Luca Schuetz, Roman Chang, Shu-Wei Metzger, Till Hartmut Fratzl, Peter Buehler, Markus J |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Masic, Admir Bertinetti, Luca Schuetz, Roman Chang, Shu-Wei Metzger, Till Hartmut Fratzl, Peter Buehler, Markus J |
| author_sort | Masic, Admir |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Water is an important component of collagen in tendons, but its role for the function of this load-carrying protein structure is poorly understood. Here we use a combination of multi-scale experimentation and computation to show that water is an integral part of the collagen molecule, which changes conformation upon water removal. The consequence is a shortening of the molecule that translates into tensile stresses in the range of several to almost 100 MPa, largely surpassing those of about 0.3 MPa generated by contractile muscles. Although a complete drying of collagen would be relevant for technical applications, such as the fabrication of leather or parchment, stresses comparable to muscle contraction already occur at small osmotic pressures common in biological environments. We suggest, therefore, that water-generated tensile stresses may play a role in living collagen-based materials such as tendon or bone. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:52:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/96407 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:52:15Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/964072022-09-30T11:48:03Z Osmotic pressure induced tensile forces in tendon collagen Masic, Admir Bertinetti, Luca Schuetz, Roman Chang, Shu-Wei Metzger, Till Hartmut Fratzl, Peter Buehler, Markus J Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics Buehler, Markus J. Chang, Shu-Wei Water is an important component of collagen in tendons, but its role for the function of this load-carrying protein structure is poorly understood. Here we use a combination of multi-scale experimentation and computation to show that water is an integral part of the collagen molecule, which changes conformation upon water removal. The consequence is a shortening of the molecule that translates into tensile stresses in the range of several to almost 100 MPa, largely surpassing those of about 0.3 MPa generated by contractile muscles. Although a complete drying of collagen would be relevant for technical applications, such as the fabrication of leather or parchment, stresses comparable to muscle contraction already occur at small osmotic pressures common in biological environments. We suggest, therefore, that water-generated tensile stresses may play a role in living collagen-based materials such as tendon or bone. United States. Office of Naval Research. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (U01-EB016422) 2015-04-07T18:21:32Z 2015-04-07T18:21:32Z 2015-01 2014-06 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-1723 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96407 Masic, Admir, Luca Bertinetti, Roman Schuetz, Shu-Wei Chang, Till Hartmut Metzger, Markus J. Buehler, and Peter Fratzl. “Osmotic Pressure Induced Tensile Forces in Tendon Collagen.” Nature Communications 6 (January 22, 2015): 5942. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4173-9659 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6942 Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Nature Publishing Group Nature Publishing Group |
| spellingShingle | Masic, Admir Bertinetti, Luca Schuetz, Roman Chang, Shu-Wei Metzger, Till Hartmut Fratzl, Peter Buehler, Markus J Osmotic pressure induced tensile forces in tendon collagen |
| title | Osmotic pressure induced tensile forces in tendon collagen |
| title_full | Osmotic pressure induced tensile forces in tendon collagen |
| title_fullStr | Osmotic pressure induced tensile forces in tendon collagen |
| title_full_unstemmed | Osmotic pressure induced tensile forces in tendon collagen |
| title_short | Osmotic pressure induced tensile forces in tendon collagen |
| title_sort | osmotic pressure induced tensile forces in tendon collagen |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96407 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4173-9659 |
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