Dynamic light-scattering study of semiflexible polymers: Collagen

✍ Scribed by Kenji Kubota; Yasunori Tominaga; Satoru Fujime

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 841 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3525
• DOI: 10.1002/bip.360261006

✦ Synopsis

Dynamic light-scattering measurements were carried out for collagen in acetate buffer (pH 4.8) extracted from lathyritic ratskin. The correlation functions were analyzed in terms of the semiflexibility of collagen molecules. The experimental T / K vs K relationship was compared with the theoretical one based on formulation including anisotropy in translational diffusion, chain flexibility, and the hydrodynamic interaction; is the average decay rate and K is the magnitude of the momentum transfer vector. By using the model parameters evaluated from the r / K relationship, a good agreement was obtained between profiles of theoretical and experimental correlation functions over the entire delay times. Detailed examinations of the dynamic light-scattering spectrum permitted us to conclude that a set of the contour length L of 300 nm and the Kuhn length y-' of 340 nm are much more probable than other sets of L and y -' that equally explain static quantities such as the radius of gyration. The results show that collagen molecules are well characterized by a wormlike chain model.