Physical and chemical aspects of the study of clusters, nanostructures and nanomaterials. Founded at 2009

Morphological features of the breakdown and restoration of fibrillar collagen obtained by acetate extraction from tendon sheaths

A.A. Gaidash1, A.I. Kulak1, V.K. Krut’ko1, O.N. Musskaya1, K.V. Skrotskaya2, E.N. Krutsko1

1 Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the NAS of Belarus
2 Research Institute for Physical Chemical Problems of the Belarusian State University

DOI: 10.26456/pcascnn/2025.17.815

Original article

Abstract: In hydrolysates of tendon sheaths obtained by acetate extraction of paravertebral tendons of laboratory rats, the stages of disintegration and reparative regeneration of fibrillar collagen were established. It was shown that collagen material is destroyed by a mechanism of the spinodal disintegration. In this case, the main anatomical fractions (tendon, sesamoid islets) exhibit different sensitivity to the action of an acidic agent – sesamoid islets are the most resistant, which may be due to the presence of proteoglycans resistant to acetate stress in the extrafibrillar matrix. The mechanisms of fibrillar collagen assembly correspond to the principle of its hierarchical organization. At the mesodimensional level, the predominant mechanisms of the self-assembly are «side-to-side» and «tip-to-tip» fusion, and the final forms are uni- and bipolar microfibrils. At the nanoscale level, the structural mechanism of fibrillar collagen growth is the twisting of microfibril spirals predominantly to the left as they mature. At the nanoscale level, fibril development occurs via the mechanism of intercalary growth with the formation of branched supramolecular formations.

Keywords: fibrillar collagen, acetate hydrolysis, assembly by side-to-side and tip-to-tip mechanisms, intercalation

  • Alexander A. Gaidash – D. Sc., Professor, Leading Researcher, Photochemistry and Electrochemistry Laboratory, Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the NAS of Belarus
  • Anatoly I. Kulak – Academician, D. Sc., Professor, Director, Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the NAS of Belarus
  • Valentina K. Krut’ko – Ph. D., Assistant Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Photochemistry and Electrochemistry, Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the NAS of Belarus
  • Olga N. Musskaya – Ph. D., Assistant Professor, Leading Researcher, Photochemistry and Electrochemistry Laboratory, Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the NAS of Belarus
  • Katarina V. Skrotskaya – Engineer, Research Institute for Physical Chemical Problems of the Belarusian State University
  • Evgeny N. Krutsko – Senior Researcher, Photochemistry and Electrochemistry Laboratory, Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the NAS of Belarus

For citation:

Gaidash A.A., Kulak A.I., Krut’ko V.K., Musskaya O.N., Skrotskaya K.V., Krutsko E.N. Morfologicheskie osobennosti raspada i vosstanovleniya fibrillyarnogo kollagena, poluchennogo atsetatnoj ekstraktsiej iz sukhozhilnykh obolochek [Morphological features of the breakdown and restoration of fibrillar collagen obtained by acetate extraction from tendon sheaths], Fiziko-khimicheskie aspekty izucheniya klasterov, nanostruktur i nanomaterialov [Physical and chemical aspects of the study of clusters, nanostructures and nanomaterials], 2025, issue 17, pp. 815-821. DOI: 10.26456/pcascnn/2025.17.815. ⎘

Full article (in Russian): download PDF file

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