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Molecular mechanochemistry: low force switch slows enzymatic cleavage of human type I collagen monomer.

ABSTRACT: In vertebrate animals, fibrillar collagen accumulates, organizes, and persists in structures which resist mechanical force. This antidissipative behavior is possibly due to a mechanochemical force-switch which converts collagen from enzyme-susceptible to enzyme-resistant. Degradation experiments on native tissue and reconstituted fibrils suggest that collagen/enzyme kinetics favor the retention of loaded collagen. We used a massively parallel, single molecule, mechanochemical reaction assay to demonstrate that the effect is derivative of molecular mechanics. Tensile loads higher than 3 pN dramatically reduced (10×) the enzymatic degradation rate of recombinant human type I collagen monomers by Clostridium histolyticum compared to unloaded controls. Because bacterial collagenase accesses collagen at multiple sites and is an aggressive cleaver of the collagen triple helical domain, the results suggest that collagen molecular architecture is generally more stable when mechanically strained in tension. Thus the tensile mechanical state of collagen monomers is likely to be correlated to their longevity in tissues. Further, strain-actuated molecular stability of collagen may constitute the fundamental basis of a smart structural mechanism which enhances the ability of animals to place, retain, and load-optimize material in the path of mechanical forces.

SUBMITTER: Camp RJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3299535 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Molecular mechanochemistry: low force switch slows enzymatic cleavage of human type I collagen monomer.

Camp Robert J RJ Liles Melody M Beale John J Saeidi Nima N Flynn Brendan P BP Moore Elias E Murthy Shashi K SK Ruberti Jeffrey W JW

Journal of the American Chemical Society 20110224 11

In vertebrate animals, fibrillar collagen accumulates, organizes, and persists in structures which resist mechanical force. This antidissipative behavior is possibly due to a mechanochemical force-switch which converts collagen from enzyme-susceptible to enzyme-resistant. Degradation experiments on native tissue and reconstituted fibrils suggest that collagen/enzyme kinetics favor the retention of loaded collagen. We used a massively parallel, single molecule, mechanochemical reaction assay to d ...[more]

PMID: 21348512

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Project description:Mechanical strain or stretch of collagen has been shown to be protective of fibrils against both thermal and enzymatic degradation. The details of this mechanochemical relationship could change our understanding of load-bearing tissue formation, growth, maintenance, and disease in vertebrate animals. However, extracting a quantitative relationship between strain and the rate of enzymatic degradation is extremely difficult in bulk tissue due to confounding diffusion effects. In this investigation, we develop a dynamic, enzyme-induced creep assay and diffusion/reaction rate scaling arguments to extract a lower bound on the relationship between strain and the cutting rate of bacterial collagenase (BC) at low strains. The assay method permits continuous, forced probing of enzyme-induced strain which is very sensitive to degradation rate differences between specimens at low initial strain. The results, obtained on uniaxially loaded strips of bovine corneal tissue (0.1, 0.25, or 0.5 N), demonstrate that small differences in strain alter the enzymatic cutting rate of the BC substantially. It was estimated that a change in tissue elongation of only 1.5% (at approximately 5% strain) reduces the maximum cutting rate of the enzyme by more than half. Estimation of the average load per monomer in the tissue strips indicates that this protective "cutoff" occurs when the collagen monomers are transitioning from an entropic to an energetic mechanical regime. The continuous tracking of the enzymatic cleavage rate as a function of strain during the initial creep response indicates that the decrease in the cleavage rate of the BC is nonlinear (initially steep between 4.5 and 6.5% and then flattens out from 6.5 to 9.5%). The high sensitivity to strain at low strain implies that even lightly loaded collagenous tissue may exhibit significant strain protection. The dynamic, enzyme-induced creep assay described herein has the potential to permit the rapid characterization of collagen/enzyme mechanochemistry in many different tissue types.

Dataset Information

Molecular mechanochemistry: low force switch slows enzymatic cleavage of human type I collagen monomer.

Publications

Molecular mechanochemistry: low force switch slows enzymatic cleavage of human type I collagen monomer.

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