A routine method for contrasting elastin at the ultrastructural level.

A reliable, simple, and inexpensive method for ultrastructural investigation of elastin is described. This method uses uranyl acetate dissolved in absolute methanol, followed by an optional lead citrate counterstain. The procedure was tested on a number of animal and human tissues that had been fixed and processed differently.

The evolution of fibrillar collagens: a sea-pen collagen shares common features with vertebrate type V collagen.

The extracellular matrix of marine primitive invertebrates (sponges, polyps and jellyfishes) contains collagen fibrils with narrow diameters. From various data, it has been hypothesized that these primitive collagens could represent ancestral forms of the vertebrate minor collagens, i.e., types V or XI. Recently we have isolated a primitive collagen from the soft tissues of the sea-pen Veretillum cynomorium. This report examines whether the sea-pen collagen shares some features with vertebrate type V collagen. Rotary shadowed images of acid-soluble collagen molecules extracted from beta-APN treated animals, positive staining of segment-long-spacing crystallites precipitated from pepsinized collagen, Western blots of the pepsinized alpha1 and alpha2 chains with antibodies to vertebrate types I, III and V collagens, and in situ gold immunolabeling of ECM collagen fibrils were examined. Our results showed that the tissue form of the sea-pen collagen is a 340-nm threadlike molecule, which is close to the vertebrate type V collagen with its voluminous terminal globular domain, the distribution of most of its polar amino-acid residues, and its antigenic properties.

High-angle electron diffraction of frozen hydrated collagen.

By using the techniques developed by Taylor et al. [(1975) J. Mol. Biol. 92, 165-167] (freezing of the hydrated specimen before its insertion into the electron microscope and keeping it frozen throughout the diffraction experiment), it was possible to obtain a high-angle electron-diffraction pattern from collagen fibrils. This pattern is in good agreement with that obtained by high-angle X-ray diffraction. Electron diffraction will be very useful to study collagen, because the diffraction pattern from a carefully selected area of one fibril is now feasible.

Atomic force microscopy study of the collagen fibre structure.

Observations of intact reconstituted and native collagen fibres were performed with the atomic force microscope. The results are compared between the two types of fibres and with those obtained previously with the electron microscope on freeze-etched or negative stained samples. Some of the findings presented here indicate that the specimens observed in air with the atomic force microscope were still in a hydrated state.

Characterization of heterotrimeric collagen molecules in a sea-pen (Cnidaria, Octocorallia).

The collagen of a primitive invertebrate, the sea-pen Veretillum Cnidaria, Octocorallia), was studied with respect to its molecular-chain composition. The soft extracellular tissues (mesoglea) were solubilized by limited pepsin proteolysis and the collagen was isolated by selective precipitation at 0.7 M NaCl under acidic conditions. The pepsinized molecules were 260 nm in length, as demonstrated by electron microscope studies of rotary-shadowed molecules and of the segment-long-spacing crystallites obtained by dialysis against ATP. SDS/PAGE of the extract produced two main bands susceptible to bacterial collagenase, designated as the alpha 1 and alpha 2 chain, which were differentiated clearly by their CNBr cleavage products and the higher glycosylation rate of the alpha 2 chain. The latter finding corresponds with the high hydroxylysine content of the alpha 2 chain. The alpha 1/alpha 2 chain ratio observed in SDS/PAGE and the fact that only one peak was obtained by concanavalin-A affinity chromatography of a non-denatured 0.7 M NaCl extract demonstrate the alpha 1 [alpha 2]2 molecular structure of this collagen. These results contrast with data on the structure of other coelenterates (i.e. [alpha]3 for sea anemone collagen molecules and alpha 1 alpha 2 alpha 3 for jellyfish collagen molecules). They are discussed in relation to the evolution of collagen.

[Phylogenesis of the extracellular matrix]. / La phylogenèse de la matrice extracellulaire.

The extracellular matrix constitutes a highly organized intercellular medium. In multicellular animals, it plays important functions for cell cohesion and for the modulation of cell differentiation and behaviour as well. All the investigations conducted in non-vertebrate species have shown that the extracellular matrix is present at the onset of the multicellular life and throughout the animal kingdom. The collagen fibrils are the most constant element. Recent data on the structure of fibrillar collagen molecules and on the organization of the corresponding genes, obtained in sponges and sea-urchins have shown the remarkable conservation of these fibrillar collagens during evolution. This even emphasize their very likely fundamental function. These results, associated with data provided by morphological and biochemical informations obtained in cnidarians suggest that these primitive fibrillar collagens are the direct precursors of some vertebrate minor fibrillar collagens such as type V. Other collagens, with interrupted triple helix, are more variable and their characterization in sponges leads to consider these non-fibrillar collagens as precursors of basement membrane collagens, of fibril-associated collagens (the FACITs collagens), of the so-called "epithelial" collagens. They were probably used as sticking devices, anchoring the animal to its substratum, or as covering layers (cuticles, sheaths), and even as skeletons (i.e. the bath sponge). Adhesive molecules of higher animals ensure the mediation of the interactions between cells (via their membrane receptors of the integrin type) and the fibrous network of the extracellular matrix. It is the same situation at the beginning of the evolution of the multicellular animals where fibronectin, tenascin and then laminin are present. Proteoglycans too are components of primitive extracellular matrices. At last, only collagen mineralized by calcium phosphate (in bone) and elastin (in elastic fibers and laminae) seem to be restricted to vertebrates.