Fibrillar and Non-fibrillar Collagens and Integrins

Abstract

This chapter describes the isolation and amino acid composition of the common type of collagen fiber polypeptides and how they associate into collagen fibers (Sect. 1). A description of how collagen fibers are stabilized by crosslinking then follows (Sect. 2). The non-fibrillar class of collagen is described, along with its role in modifying fibers and in forming filaments (Sect. 3). The chapter concludes with a detailed discussion of integrin proteins, with special emphasis on how integrins control fibroblast cell attachment to collagen fibers and collagen synthesis (Sect. 4).