Decellularized pericardium tissues at increasing glucose, galactose and ribose concentrations...

Diseases like widespread diabetes or rare galactosemia may lead to high sugarconcentrations in the human body, thereby promoting the formation ofglycoconjugates. Glycation of collagen, i.e. the formation of glucose bridges, isnonenzymatic and therefore cannot be prevented in any other way than keepingthe sugar level low. It relates to secondary diseases, abundantly occurring inaging populations and diabetics. However, little is known about the effects ofglycation of collagen on the molecular level. We studied in vitro the effect ofglycation, with d-glucose and d-galactose as well as d-ribose, on the structure oftype 1 collagen by preparing decellularized matrices of bovine pericardia soakedin different sugar solutions, at increasing concentrations (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20 and40 mg ml1), and incubated at 37C for 3, 14, 30 and 90 days. The tissue sampleswere analyzed with small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering in scanning mode.Wefound that glucose and galactose produce similar changes in collagen, i.e. theymainly affect the lateral packing between macromolecules. However, ribose ismuch faster in glycation, provoking a larger effect on the lateral packing, butalso seems to cause qualitatively different effects on the collagen structure