Abstract
IT is well known that if collagen is heated in water to about 62° C. it undergoes shrinkage, and that if it is then allowed to dry, its ability to re-hydrate on immersion in water is considerably reduced. Although opinions differ as to the precise mechanism of hydrothermal shrinkage, the phenomenon is generally agreed to be a cumulative effect in which the polypeptide chains, by the rupture of certain cross-links of various strengths, assume a more compact space arrangement than their hitherto extended forms. On drying in this compact state, their ability to take up water is considerably reduced, due probably to the formation of fresh inter-chain links.
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PANKHURST, K. 'Incipient Shrinkage' of Collagen and Gelatin. Nature 159, 538 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159538a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159538a0
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