The Effect of Sutural Growth Rate on Collagen Phenotype Synthesis

We determined the ratio of newly-synthesized type III collagen to the total of type I and type III collagen in mouse interparietal sutural tissue at selected ages between birth and adulthood (36 weeks old). We incubated mouse calvaria explants in Trowell-type organ culture dishes for one h and then added [14C]-glycine for two h. We dissected the interparietal sutural tissues for collagen solubilization by limited pepsin digestion. Fluorographic visualization of separated radiolabeled collagens, after SDS-PAGE, found the ratio of collagen type III a-chains to the total type I and type III a-chains to be age-dependent. The proportion of type III α-chains at birth was quite high, but there was a significant drop (p