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

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