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. 1993 Apr;64(4):1210–1214. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(93)81487-5

Structural transformation of collagen fibrils in corneal stroma during drying. An x-ray scattering study.

P Fratzl 1, A Daxer 1
PMCID: PMC1262438  PMID: 8494978

Abstract

X-ray scattering experiments were performed on human corneas during drying. In a first stage the collagen interfibrillar distance decreased considerably. Then, at a critical point of dehydration, a structural transformation of the collagen fibrils was observed. This finding leads to a two-stage drying model, which explains the discrepancy between the collagen fibril diameters determined by x-ray scattering and by electron microscopy. Our results strongly suggest that the collagen fibrils in the corneal stroma are surrounded by a cylindrical coating made mainly of proteoglycans. The coating appears as a three-dimensional fractal network with fractal dimension of 2.7 +/- 0.1.

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Selected References

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