A study of positive staining for electron microscopy using collagen as a model system—III. The effect of suberimidate fixation

✍ Scribed by Margaret Tzaphlidou; John A. Chapman

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 917 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0739-6260
• DOI: 10.1016/0739-6260(84)90004-2

✦ Synopsis

Collagen is used as a model system to study the structural effects ofthe fixative dimethylsuberimidate (DMS) on a protein. Using reconstituted fibrils of type I calf skin collagen (of known amino acid sequence), electron-optical data from positive staining patterns were compared with chemical data by a computer-aided correlation procedure. The resultsshow that, under the conditionsused, the reaction between DMS and collagen is specific for the s-amino groups of lysyl and hydroxylysyl residues and that no reaction takes place between DMS and arginyl residues. Other evidence suggests that (unlike glutaraldehyde) no polymerization ofthe DMS occursand that a cross-link between the two s-amino groups can only form when they are sufficiently close to be bridged by the DMS monomer.