Collagen
Collagen is the protein that constitutes most connective tissue, and it is also responsible for skin elasticity; the degradation of collagen is the cause of wrinkling. Collagen is also present in crystalline form in the cornea. It's the most abundant mammalian protein.
Vitamin C is essential to healthy collagen, and without it collagen breaks down, leading to scurvy, a disease of connective tissue that causes teeth to fall out and skin to bruise very easily. White collagen, the bulk of connective tissue in mammals, is made up of interwoven collagen fibres.
Some distinct forms of collagen include:
- Type I collagen – In scar tissue, tendons, and the soft part of bone
- Type II collagen - Articular cartilage
- Type III collagen – Granulation tissue, produced before Type I
- Type IV collagen – found in the penis
- Type V collagen - most interstitial tissue, assoc. with type I
- Type VI collagen - most interstitial tissue, assoc. with type I
- Type VII collagen - epithelia
- Type VIII collagen - some endothelial cells
- Type IX collagen - cartilage, assoc. with type II
- Type X collagen - hypertrophic and mineralizing cartilage
- Type XI collagen - cartilage
- Type XII collagen - interacts with types I and III
- Type XIII collagen - interacts with types I and II
Web Resources On Collagen
Collagen Types
Collagen and Elastin
Book Resources On CollagenCollagen : Primer in Structure, Processing and Assembly by Jürgen Brinckmann (Editor)
Unconventional Collagens by Michel Van Der Rest et al
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