Interaction collagen-water

The above consideration lead essentially to a comparison with the model proposed for collagen fiber from rat-tail tendon. In effect, if it is possible to relate the hydration properties to structural or textural chemical differences in the samples, one can hope to explain the collagen-water interaction on a molecular basis. 

Sun et al. (1986) have observed that various types of clay exhibit the same influence on the vicinal water. They concluded that a substrate independence exists. Packer (1977) also noted the substrate independence of water-structuring effects. He quotes Woessner s NMR studies showing that the ratio of the deuteron-to-proton splittings for water, oriented by proximity to a clay surface (3.75), appears independent of the type of clay and that the same ratio is found for water in oriented collagen, Li-DNA, and rayon. Thus, Packer suggests that it is merely the presence of a static surface and not its nature that matters in producing dynamic orientation of that water, and that the predominant effect is water-water interaction. The importance of the paradoxical effect lies in the prediction that vicinal water occurs at all solid interfaces and must, therefore, also occur in cellular systems—the cellular interior offers vast structural areas for the induction of vicinal water. 

Figure 18 Molecular structure of IBP collagen (PDB accession number 1Q7D) showing a direct intrahelical ion bridge and a water-mediated interaction between Glu and Arg of different chains. The figure was generated using the UCSF Chimera package.

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