Application of the Arrhenius Equation to Rat Tail Tendon Collagen

• Published in: Nature (London) 1963-07, Vol.199 (4889), p.185-186
• Main Author: AKESON, WAYNE H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Collagen; Humanities and Social Sciences; letter; multidisciplinary; Old Medline; Rats; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Tendons; Thermodynamics
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/199185a0

AN important and widely investigated property of collagen is its hydrothermal shrinkage. The concept of shrinkage temperature ( T s ) has been developed as a manner of characterization of the hydrothermal stability of the fibre. Shrinkage temperature is determined by heating the fibre in water, the temperature of which is increased at the rate of 2 deg./min. The fibre is kept under observation, and the temperature at which contraction occurs is noted as the T s of the fibre in question. Usually a range of temperature is recorded because the end point of reaction is not precise. Although useful, the concept of T s is not a strictly valid one. Shrinkage curves constructed from data on length of fibres plotted against time at various temperatures clearly establish that the process of shrinkage of collagen is a rate phenomenon and that a true shrinkage temperature does not exist from a thermodynamic point of view. For this reason, Weir and Carter 1,2 examined the hydrothermal stability of collagen as a rate process. They stated that the reaction appeared to be of the first order and applied the theory of absolute reaction rates to the process. The half-time of the fibre shrinkage was taken as an index of the reaction rate at each of several temperatures and these t 1/2 values were substituted for rate constants in the Arrhenius equation.