Polar-apolar characteristics and fibrillogenesis of glycosylated collagen.

To find the effect of carbohydrate on collagen fibrillogenesis, type I skin collagen was glycosylated by glycosyltransferase, and type II cartilage collagen was deglycosylated by glycosidase. The secondary structures remained unchanged, but the tertiary structures were altered, as shown by increased TNS fluorescence of the bound probe in the glycosylated form. Since TNS binds preferentially to the hydrophobic region of a protein molecule, glycosylation caused an apparent increase in the available hydrophobic sites for the dye.

Short-term biocompatibility studies of hydrogel-grafted collagen copolymers.

Synthetic hydrogels are an interesting class of biomaterials. Hydrogels were prepared by the graft copolymerization of either HEMA and MMA or HEMA and GDMA onto soluble collagen using different cross linking agents. The tissue compatibility of these hydrogels was studied by implantation in rats.