Is there evidence for change to collagen within parchment samples after exposure to an X-ray dose during high contrast X-ray microtomography? a multi technique investigation

Kate Patten,Craig Kennedy,Tim Wess,Graham Davis,Lee Gonzalez,David Mills

doi:10.1186/2050-7445-1-22

Kate Patten, Craig Kennedy + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/2050-7445-1-22

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Abstract

The potential use of high contrast X-ray microtomography (XMT) for the reading of fragile historic documents without the need to physically unravel them is a new analytical imaging development in the field of conservation however, it is important to first assess if there is any evidence of change in the parchment structure during scanning by XMT. Modern and historic parchment samples were exposed to X-rays using the high contrast XMT equipment. Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infra-red Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were utilised to investigate whether there is any evidence for change to collagen within parchment samples after exposure to XMT. Results show that the inherent differences in the parchment structure due to the material source, production and storage appear to produce larger differences than that due to the exposure to XMT. This indicates that XMT may be a suitable technique for data recovery from parchment samples that cannot be unrolled.

Highlights

Parchment has been used as a writing material for over a thousand years and was developed in response to socio-economic changes
ATR-FTIR allows the observation of the conformational changes in the triple helical structure of collagen, SDS-PAGE is used to assess the molecular integrity of the collagen within the parchment, Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) can penetrate further into a sample and is beneficial when investigating parchment as a bulk material and X-ray diffraction (XRD) is used to assess the structural integrity of the collagen molecules
Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infra-red analysis (ATR-FTIR) It has previously been shown that ATR-FTIR can be used to determine conformational changes of the collagen and gelatine components within parchment artefacts and determine if structural degradation has taken place

Summary

Introduction

Parchment has been used as a writing material for over a thousand years and was developed in response to socio-economic changes. The development of this equipment to read damaged historic documents is a potentially exciting development in the field of conservation, it is important to first assess if there is any evidence of change in the parchment structure during scanning by XMT. In this study a number of complementary scientific techniques are used to compare parchment samples before and after exposure to X-rays using XMT to ensure no detectable change is observed. ATR-FTIR allows the observation of the conformational changes in the triple helical structure of collagen, SDS-PAGE is used to assess the molecular integrity of the collagen within the parchment, NIR can penetrate further into a sample and is beneficial when investigating parchment as a bulk material and XRD is used to assess the structural integrity of the collagen molecules

Results and discussion

Conclusions

Larsen R