Research: Zooming in on cartilage

The arrangement of thin collagen fibrils in cartilage has finally been worked out.

Using a variety of techniques, David Holmes and Karl Kadler found that the fibrils are made up of a core of four microfibrils surrounded by a ring of ten, with each microfibril containing five collagen molecules in cross-section. It should now be possible to work out how mutations in collagen genes affect cartilage formation in human developmental disorders.

External link

• Holmes DF, Kadler KE. The 10+4 microfibril structure of thin cartilage fibrils. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2006;103(46):17249–54.