Perpustakaan Digital ITB

The extracellular matrix of a tissue is as important to life as the cells within it. Its detailed molecular structure defines the environment of a tissue’s cells and thus their properties, including differentiation and metabolic status. Collagen proteins are the major component of extracellular matrices. Self-assembled collagen fibrils provide both specific mechanical properties to handle external stresses on tissues and, at the molecular level, well-defined protein binding sites to interact with cells. How the cell?matrix interactions are maintained against the stresses on the tissue is an important and as yet unanswered question. Similarly, how collagen molecular and fibrillar structures change in aging and disease is a crucial open question.