Collagen crosslinks and their relationship to the thermal properties of calf tendons.

The hydrothermal isometric tension and thermal transition temperature of collagen were determined in tendons from three different calf muscles. The levels of the nonreducible collagen crosslink, pyridinoline, and the collagen-associated Ehrlich chromogen were also measured in the three tendons. The reducible collagen crosslinks, hydroxylysinonorleucine, dihydroxylysinonorleucine, and histidinohydroxymerodesmosine were measured in two tendons. The thermal properties and levels of crosslinks were found to vary considerably between the different tendons, and also at different sites in two of the tendons. A strong correlation was observed between the thermal transition temperatures and the hydrothermal isometric tensions of the nine tendon sites examined. Both thermal properties correlated with the concentration of both pyridinoline and Ehrlich chromogen. The analogous behavior of the collagen-associated Ehrlich chromogen and the pyridinoline crosslink supports the role of the Ehrlich chromogen as a nonreducible crosslink.