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Updated: Sep 26, 2025
Imaging Denatured Collagen Strands In vivo and Ex vivo via Photo-triggered Hybridization of Caged Collagen Mimetic Peptides
Published on: January 31, 2014
Dentin collagen denaturation status assessed by collagen hybridizing peptide and its effect on bio-stabilization of
Rong Wang1, Saleha Nisar1, Zachary Vogel1
1School of Dentistry, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA.
Objective:
To assess dentin collagen denaturation from phosphoric acid and enzyme treatments using collagen hybridizing peptide (CHP) and to investigate the effect of collagen denaturation on bio-stabilization promoted by proanthocyanidins (PA).
Methods:
Human molars were sectioned into 7-µm-thick dentin films, demineralized, and assigned to six groups: control with/without PA modification, H3PO4-treated collagen with/without PA modification, enzyme-treated collagen with/without PA modification. PA modification involved immersing collagen films in 0.65% PA for 30 s. H3PO4 and enzyme treatments were used to experimentally induce collagen denaturation, which was quantitated by fluorescence intensity (FI) from the fluorescently-conjugated-CHP (F-CHP) staining (n = 4). FTIR was used to characterize collagen structures. All groups were subject to collagenase digestion to test the bio-stabilization effect of PA on denatured collagen using weight loss analysis and hydroxyproline assay (n = 6). Data were analyzed using two-factor ANOVA and Games-Howell post hoc tests (α = 0.05).
Results:
FTIR showed collagen secondary structural changes after denaturation treatments and confirmed the incorporation and cross-linking of PA in control and treated collagen. F-CHP staining indicated high-degree, medium-degree, and low-degree collagen denaturation from H3PO4-treatment (FI = 83.22), enzyme-treatment (FI = 36.54), and control (FI = 6.01) respectively. PA modification significantly reduced the weight loss and hydroxyproline release of all groups after digestion (p < 0.0001), with the results correlated with FI values at r = 0.96-0.98.
Significance:
A molecular method CHP is introduced as a sensitive technique to quantitate dentin collagen denaturation for the first time. PA modification is shown to effectively stabilize denatured collagen against collagenase digestion, with the stabilization effect negatively associated with the collagen denaturation degree.
