The findings indicate that cultured HCECs transplanted from adult human donor cornea by means of a collagen sheet can retain their function of corneal dehydration in a rabbit model and suggest the feasibility of transplantation for CEC dysfunction using cultured HCECs with a collagen sheet.

Covalent intermolecular cross-linking provides collagen fibrils with stability. The cross-linking chemistry is tissue-specific and determined primarily by the state of lysine hydroxylation at specific sites. A recent study on cyclophilin B (CypB) null mice, a model of recessive osteogenesis imperfecta, demonstrated that lysine hydroxylation at the helical cross-linking site of bone type I collagen was diminished in these animals (Cabral, W. A., Perdivara, I., Weis, M., Terajima, M., Blissett, A. R., Chang, W., Perosky, J. E., Makareeva, E. N., Mertz, E. L., Leikin, S., Tomer, K. B., Kozloff, K. M., Eyre, D. R., Yamauchi, M., and Marini, J. C. (2014) PLoS Genet. 10, e1004465). However, the extent of decrease appears to be tissue-and molecular site-specific, the mechanism of which is unknown. Here we report that although CypB deficiency resulted in lower lysine hydroxylation in the helical cross-linking sites, it was increased in the telopeptide cross-linking sites in tendon type I collagen. This resulted in a decrease in the lysine aldehyde-derived cross-links but generation of hydroxylysine aldehyde-derived cross-links. The latter were absent from the wild type and heterozygous mice. Glycosylation of hydroxylysine residues was moderately increased in the CypB null tendon. We found that CypB interacted with all lysyl hydroxylase isoforms (isoforms 1-3) and a putative lysyl hydroxylase-2 chaperone, 65-kDa FK506-binding protein. Tendon collagen in CypB null mice showed severe size and organizational abnormalities. The data indicate that CypB modulates collagen cross-linking by differentially affecting lysine hydroxylation in a site-specific manner, possibly via its interaction with lysyl hydroxylases and associated molecules. This study underscores the critical importance of collagen post-translational modifications in connective tissue formation.Collagens comprise a large family of structurally related extracellular matrix proteins (1). Among all of the genetic types of collagen identified, fibrillar type I collagen is the most abundant, providing tissues and organs with form and stability. It is a heterotrimeric molecule composed of two ␣1 chains and one ␣2 chain forming a long uninterrupted triple helix with short non-helical domains (telopeptide) at both N and C termini. One of the functionally important characteristics of collagen is its unique, sequential post-translational modifications of Lys residues. The modifications include hydroxylation and monoand diglycosylation of hydroxylysine (Hyl), 3 and oxidative deamination of Lys and Hyl in the N-and C-telopeptides followed by extensive covalent intermolecular cross-linking (2). It is now clear that defective Lys modifications of collagen cause and/or are associated with a broad range of connective tissue disorders, including Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type VIA (3), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (4), Kuskokwim syndrome (5), Bruck syndrome (6, 7), fibrosis (8), disuse osteoporosis (9), and cancer progression (10, 11). Our recent finding showed that a switch of collage...

The functions of aminotelopeptide and N-terminal cross-linking of collagen I were examined. Acetic acidsoluble collagen I (ASC) was purified from neonatal bovine skin and treated with three kinds of proteases. The amino acid sequencing analysis of the N terminus showed that ASC contained a full-length aminotelopeptide. Pepsin and papain cleaved the aminotelopeptide of the ␣1 chain at the same site and the aminotelopeptide of the ␣2 chain at different sites. Proctase-treated ASC lost the whole aminotelopeptide, and the N-terminal sequence began from the tenth residue inside the triple helical region. The rates of fibril formation of pepsintreated ASC and proctase-treated ASC were the same and were slower than that of ASC. The denaturation temperatures, monitored by CD ellipticity at 221 nm, of ASC, pepsin-treated, or papain-treated collagens were the same at 41.8°C. Proctase-treated ASC showed a lower denaturation temperature of 39.9°C. We also observed the morphology of the collagen fibrils under an electron microscope. The ASC fibrils were straight and thin, whereas the fibrils of pepsin-treated ASC were slightly twisted, and the fibrils from papain-and proctase-treated ASC were highly twisted and thick. When the collagen gel strength was examined by a modified method of viscosity-measurement, ASC was the strongest, followed by pepsin-treated ASC, and papain-and proctase-treated ASCs were the weakest. These results suggest that the aminotelopeptide plays important roles in fibril formation and thermal stability. In addition, the functions of intermolecular cross-linking in aminotelopeptides may contribute to the formation of fibrils in the correct staggered pattern and to strengthening the collagen gel.The collagens of types I, II, III, and V/XI are grouped as fibrillar collagens, and collagens I, II, III and V are able to form fibrils in exactly a 67-nm staggered manner in vitro (1). The existence of collagen amino-and carboxytelopeptides in the collagen molecules accelerates the assembly of collagen fibrils (2) and are necessary for contraction of the collagen gel lattice by dermal cells (3). Collagens solubilized in acetic acid solution began to assemble fibrils on warming and neutralization of pH.The speed of fibril formation, the fibril thickness, and the fibril length were easily affected by pH, concentration of NaCl, and temperature (4, 5). The fibril diameter of type I collagen is reduced by the addition of type V collagen (6) or the existence of age-related cross-linking in the triple helical region (7). The fibril formation of acid-soluble collagen (ASC) 1 is faster than that of pepsin-treated ASC, and pepsin-treated ASC fibril is released from the fibrils to the solution again on incubation at low temperature (8). In fact, the pepsin-treated ASC have short telopeptides, because the molecular mass of pepsin-treated ASC is smaller than that of intact ASC by SDS-PAGE analysis (2, 3, 9). The telopeptide may affect the lag time and speed of fibril formation, but it is not known which portion of the telope...

Recent studies have reported that oral intake of gelatin hydrolysate has various beneficial effects, such as reduction of joint pain and lowering of blood sugar levels. In this study, we produced a novel gelatin hydrolysate using a cysteine-type ginger protease having unique substrate specificity with preferential peptide cleavage with Pro at the P2 position. Substantial amounts of X-hydroxyproline (Hyp)-Gly-type tripeptides were generated up to 2.5% (w/w) concomitantly with Gly-Pro-Y-type tripeptides (5%; w/w) using ginger powder. The in vivo absorption of the ginger-degraded gelatin hydrolysate was estimated using mice. The plasma levels of collagen-derived oligopeptides, especially X-Hyp-Gly, were significantly high (e.g., 2.3-fold for Glu-Hyp-Gly, p < 0.05) compared with those of the control gelatin hydrolysate, which was prepared using gastrointestinal proteases and did not contain detectable X-Hyp-Gly. This study demonstrated that orally administered X-Hyp-Gly was effectively absorbed into the blood, probably due to the high protease resistance of this type of tripeptide.

Collagens are the most abundant proteins in animals and are involved in many physiological/pathological events. Although various methods have been used to quantify collagen and its post-translational modifications (PTMs) over the years, it is still difficult to accurately quantify type-specific collagen and minor collagen PTMs. We report a novel quantitative method targeting collagen using stable isotope-labeled collagen named "SI-collagen", which was labeled with isotopically heavy lysine, arginine, and proline in fibroblasts culture. We prepared highly labeled and purified SI-collagen for use as an internal standard in mass spectrometric analysis, particularly for a new approach using amino acid hydrolysis. Our method enabled accurate collagen analyses, including quantification of (1) type-specific collagen (types I and III in this paper), (2) total collagen, and (3) collagen PTMs by LC-MS with high sensitivity. SI-collagen is also applicable to other diverse analyses of collagen and can be a powerful tool for various studies, such as detailed investigation of collagen-related disorders.