Collagen fibrils are nanostructured biological cables essential to the structural integrity of many of our tissues. Consequently, understanding the structural basis of their robust mechanical properties is of great interest. Here we present what to our knowledge is a novel mode of collagen fibril disruption that provides new insights into both the structure and mechanics of native collagen fibrils. Using enzyme probes for denatured collagen and scanning electron microscopy, we show that mechanically overloading collagen fibrils from bovine tail tendons causes them to undergo a sequential, two-stage, selective molecular failure process. Denatured collagen molecules-meaning molecules with a reduced degree of time-averaged helicity compared to those packed in undamaged fibrils-were first created within kinks that developed at discrete, repeating locations along the length of fibrils. There, collagen denaturation within the kinks was concentrated within certain subfibrils. Additional denatured molecules were then created along the surface of some disrupted fibrils. The heterogeneity of the disruption within fibrils suggests that either mechanical load is not carried equally by a fibril's subcomponents or that the subcomponents do not possess homogenous mechanical properties. Meanwhile, the creation of denatured collagen molecules, which necessarily involves the energy intensive breaking of intramolecular hydrogen bonds, provides a physical basis for the toughness of collagen fibrils.

A critical feature of tendons and ligaments is their ability to resist rupture when overloaded, resulting in strains or sprains instead of ruptures. To treat these injuries more effectively, it is necessary to understand how overload affects the primary load-bearing elements of these tissues: collagen fibrils. We have investigated how repeated subrupture overload alters the collagen of tendons at the nanoscale. Using scanning electron microscopy to examine fibril morphology and hydrothermal isometric tension testing to look at molecular stability, we demonstrated that tendon collagen undergoes a progressive cascade of discrete plasticity damage when repeatedly overloaded. With successive overload cycles, fibrils develop an increasing number of kinks along their length. These kinks-discrete zones of plastic deformation known to contain denatured collagen molecules-are accompanied by a progressive and eventual total loss of D-banding along the surface of fibrils, indicating a loss of native molecular packing and further molecular denaturation. Thermal analysis of molecular stability showed that the destabilization of collagen molecules within fibrils is strongly related to the amount of strain energy dissipated by the tendon after yielding during tensile overload. These novel findings raise new questions about load transmission within tendons and their fibrils and about the interplay between crosslinking, strain-energy dissipation ability, and molecular denaturation within these structures. Keywords: collagen fibril; mechanical overload; discrete plasticity; tendon strain; molecular denaturation A critical mechanical feature of tendons and ligaments is their resistance to catastrophic failure when overloaded, resulting in a strain or sprain rather than a rupture. Strains and sprains are common. In 2006 and 2010, nearly 40% of all occupational injuries in the United States resulting in time off work were strains or sprains.1,2 The resulting economic impact of these injuries is sizable. In 2009, workplace injuries cost $170 billion U.S. dollars, half of which was attributed to lost wages and productivity.3 With such a high rate of incidence, strains and sprains not only accounted for more lost days of work than any other occupational injury, but more than the next three leading causes combined.

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Due to the high occurrence rate of overextension injuries to tendons and ligaments, it is important to understand the fundamental mechanisms of damage to these tissues' primary load-bearing elements: collagen fibrils and their constituent molecules. Based on our recent observations of a new subrupture, overload-induced mode of fibril disruption that we call discrete plasticity, we have sought in the current study to re-explore whether the tensile overload of collagen fibrils can alter the helical conformation of collagen molecules. In order to accomplish this, we have analyzed the conformation of collagen molecules within repeatedly overloaded tendons in relation to their undamaged matched-pair controls using both differential scanning calorimetry and variable temperature trypsin digestion susceptibility. We find that tensile overload reduces the specific enthalpy of denaturation of tendons, and increases their susceptibility to trypsin digestion, even when the digestion is carried out at temperatures as low as 4 °C. Our results indicate that the tensile overload of collagen fibrils can uncoil the helix of collagen molecules, placing them in a stable, denatured state.