Fibrillin microfibrils crosslinking

There are two major current models of fibrillin-1 alignment in microfibrils the molecular hinge model of unstaggered molecules and the one-third staggered arrangement. One driver in both models is the presence of an intermolecular fibrillin-1 transglutaminase crosslink (Qian and Glanville, 1997). However, our recent mass spectrometry study has revealed that not every fibrillin-1 molecule is crosslinked within tissue microfibrils (Cain et al., 2005). 

Elastic fibers form the network in skin and cardiovascular tissue (elastic arteries) that is associated with elastic recovery. Historically the recovery of skin and vessel wall on removal of mechanical loads at low strains has been attributed to elastic fibers. Elastic fibers are composed of a core of elastin surrounded by microfibrils 10 to 15 nm in diameter composed of a family of glycoproteins recently termed fibrillins. Fibrillins are a family of extracellular matrix glycoproteins (MW about 350,000) containing a large number of cysteine residues (cysteine residues form disulfide crosslinks). Several members of the family have been described. The common molecular features include N and C terminal ends with 47 tandemly repeated epi-... 

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