This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hulliger, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Hulliger, J.

Connective Tissue Polarity Unraveled by a Markov-Chain Mechanism of Collagen Fibril Segment Self-Assembly

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Berne, CH-3012 Berne, Switzerland

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Jürg Hulliger, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Berne, Freiestrasse 3, CH-3012 Berne, Switzerland. Fax: +41-0-31-631-3993; E-mail: juerg.hulliger{at}iac.unibe.ch.

The well-established occurrence of pyroelectricity (Lang, 1966) in tissues of living organisms has found a first explanation by a Markov-chain mechanism taking place during collagen fibril self-assembly in extracytoplasmic channels. Recently reported biochemical findings on the longitudinal fusion reactivity of small fibril segments (which undergo C-, N- and C-, C- but not N-, N-terminal fusions; see Graham et al., 2000; Kadler et al., 1996) may provide a mechanism by which a difference in the fusion probabilities P_CC, P_NN drives the self-assembly into partial macroscopic polar order. In principle, a Markov-chain growth process can lower the noncentrosymmetric 2 symmetry describing dielectric properties of a growing limb (as managed by fibroblasts) into the polar group. It is proposed that macroscopically polar properties enter the biological world by a stochastic mechanism of unidirectional growth. Polarity formation in organisms shows similarity to effects reported for molecular crystals (Hulliger et al., 2002).