The transverse structure of collagen

Nicolas Rivier (1, 2) , J F Sadoc (1, 3)

1 ACI Biofrustration
2 IPCMS - Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg
3 Laboratoire de Physique des Solides

Collagen is the principal constituent of extra-cellular, connective tissue. It is a tightly-packed but flexible bundle of proteins that constitutes a material. The collagen molecule is a triple helix made of three, intertwined polypeptide chains, associated with ?3 and its rational convergents. Accordingly, the collagen fibril, a long, periodic bundle of finite collagen molecules, has a transverse structure based on two underlying, perpendicular hexagonal lattices. It is the Archimedean, square-triangle tiling 3^{2}.4.3.4, in both "overlap" and "gap" regions, with small orthorhombic distortions imposed as rational approximants of the two perpendicular lattices. The three-dimensional structure is a periodic, rotating stack of gap and overlap regions, with a ten-fold rotation symmetry.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Nicolas Rivier, J F Sadoc. The transverse structure of collagen. Philosophical Magazine, 2006, 86 (06-08), pp.1075-1083. ⟨10.1080/14786430500355078⟩. ⟨hal-00513623⟩