pH effects on collagen fibrillogenesis in vitro: Electrostatic interactions and phosphate binding

Collagen self-assembly in vitro was conducted in the pH range from 6.0 to 10.5 at 30 °C in order to investigate the electrostatic interactions that occur during fibril formation. A sigmoidal curve was observed in the growth rate of fibrils. Collagen fibril morphologies imaged by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) present bundling of fibrils with a small amount of non-fibrillar collagen. At a low pH of...