Lecture 17 Flashcards
What is extracellular matrix (ECM)?
Extracellular= outside of the cell
Matrix= a network of proteins, minerals, sugars and water
What does the ECM provide?
Provides:
1) Mechanical support to tissues
2) Pathways for cellular migration
3) Survival signals
4) Sequesters growth factors
What are the 5 classes of macromolecules that make up the ECM?
- Collagen
- Elastin
- Glycosaminoglycans and Proteoglucans
- Hyaluronan (a unique Glycosaminoglycan)
- Adhesive Glycoproteins
What are some facts about ECM?
All can be encoded by multiple genes
All can be alternatively spliced
Geometrical arrangments can change in different environments
This gives rise to many different types of ECMs
How is the ECM made?
Usually made by cells that are in the tissue
Eg. Fibroblasts
They secrete the fibrous part of the connective tissue and “ground substance” (the material between the fibres made of variable amounts of water and other molecules). This determines how hard or soft the matrix will be
What is collagen?
Most abundant protein in the human body and is found across the phylogenetic tree
Very strong (weight for weight they are as strong as steel)
What is the structure of collagen?
Rod shape
Triple helix that can be up to 420 nm long
What are glycine residues?
Make up the core of the collaen fibre
They are small, allowing for tight packing of the helices
What is the triple helic fibres made of in collagen?
The triple helix fibres can be made of identical chains (called homotrimers). There are also heterotrimers that use 2 or 3 different chains
How many collagens are there in the body?
Over 20 different collagens in humans
Over 100 other protein that have collagen gene triple repeating segments within them
What does a real collagen have to have?
Other proteins are also triple helixes, but to be a real collagen the protein must form fibres or other structures in the extracellular matrix
What are the 3 main types of collagen structures?
- Fibrillar Collagens
- Sheet-forming Collagens
- Anchoring/linking Collagens
What are the features of fibrillar collagens?
300nm long
Strong, but flexible
How can fibres in fibrillar collagens be seen?
Fibres can be seen in a:
Loose netowrk (eg. connective tissue in the intestine) has a higher proportion of loose ground substance [more water] than collagen
Dense network (tendon) less ground substance, or anything in between
Used to reinforce all of the tissues in the body
What kind of collagen does the eye have?
Fibrillar Collagens
Layers of orthogonal fibres (fibres at right angles).
Vitrous body (and cartilage) has glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans trapped within the collagen
What do fibrillar collagens do in the eye?
Allows enough water to be retained in those structures to allow light to pass through and to resist compression
What are fibrillar collagens?
Usually form heteropolymers in vivo with 1 other collagen
Are conserved from sponges to vertebratesm
What are the general steps for formation of fibrillar collagen?
Fibroblasts make Collagen 1 and release it from the cells using exocytosis
How is collagen 1 made?
Very long (42 exons) collagen 1 genes encode collagen 1 chains
Preprocollagen translocates to the rough ER
What happens in the ER?
The signal sequence is removed (often referred to as pro collagen)
Sugars are added to the protein
Folding of the proteins begins
How is the protein folded?
The protein is folded into the long procollagen triple helix and secreted from the ER using COPII vesicles that are modified by accessory proteins to fit the large (>300nm) fibrils
What happens once the protein is secreted?
Once secreted from the cell, other enzymes called matrix metalloproteinases (NMPs) cleave the pro-collagen into pieces resulting in collagen
Does collagen self-assemble itself?
Collagen self-assembles into fibrils that have a 67nm stagger and are usually covalently crosslinked (at their lysines) by the enzyme lysyl oxidase to give the high tensile strength of the collagen fibrils
What are sheet-forming collagens?
Form sheets instead of fibrils that wrap around organs or tissues (basal lamina), or whole animals (Eg. cuticle of earthworms)
What are linking collagens?
These are collagens that link Fibrillar and Sheet-Forming collagens to other structures
What are elastic fibers?
Fibers that act like rubber band
Give organs the ability to recoil after being stretched
(Eg. arteries, skin, lungs have a alot of elastic fibres)
What are elastic fibers made by?
Made by embryonic and juvenile fibroblasts (so the elastic fibers that you are born with are the ones you have for life, they turn over very slowly if at all)
How long do elastic fibers survive for in your arteries?
Elastic fibers in your arteries will survive over 2.5 billion stretch-recoil cycles during your life
What are elastic fibers formed of?
Formed of Fibrillin microfibrils that are a scaffold for the protein Elastin to bind to (look at picture in PP)