Abstract
The collagen fibres in connective tissue are composed of tropocollagen molecules, which are rod-like macromolecules with a diameter of about 1.4 nm and a length of about 280 nm. These molecules are built up from three polypeptide chains called α-chains, which are coiled around one another in a superhelical conformation. The molecular weight of the individual α-chain is about 95,000, and thus the molecular weight of the tropocollagen molecule is about 300,000. In most of the body collagen there are two chains of one type, designated α1, and one of another type designated α2, each having a similar but distinct amino acid sequence (for reviews on collagen structure, see Ramachandran, 1967; Grant and Prockop, 1972).
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