Liquid crystallinity in collagen systems in vitro and in vivo

Collagens are unique triple helical proteins present in large quantities in a fibrillar form in tissues like tendon, bone, skin, cornea, where type I collagen predominates. The passage from triple helical molecules to fibrils obeys to controlled assembly properties, both in vitro by pH raise and in vivo through enzymatic control. The passage from individual fibrils to ordered fibrillar arrays could rely on self-assembly processes as suggested by...