FIGURE 7.

Composition of collagen VI tetramers as detected by electron microscopy after negative staining. Representative collagen VI tetramers from E14.5 mouse lung containing different long α chains are shown. Only homotetramers were detected. The N-terminal regions of the long chains were doubly labeled using specific gold-labeled antibodies against the different α chains. Small gold particles (open arrowheads) always stain the α chain with the lower number, whereas the large gold particles (filled arrowheads) stain that with the higher number. Scale bar, 100 nm.