Mechanistic Insights into the Structural Stability of Collagen-Containing Biomaterials Such as Bones and Cartilage.

Structural stability of various collagen-containing biomaterials such as bones and cartilage is still a mystery. Despite the spectroscopic development of several decades, the detailed mechanism of collagen interaction with citrate in bones and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in the cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM) in its native state is unobservable. We present a significant advancement to probe the collagen interactions with citrate and GAGs in the ECM of native bones and cartilage along with specific/non-specific interactions inside the collagen assembly at the nanoscopic level through natural-abundance dynamic nuclear polarization-based solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The detected molecular-level interactions between citrate-collagen and GAG-collagen inside the native bone and cartilage matrices and other backbone and side-chain interactions in the collagen assembly are responsible for the structural stability and other biomechanical properties of these important classes of biomaterials.