Nanostructural Mechanism of Modifying Adaptation of Proteoglycan Systems of Biological Tissues and Mucus

Abstract

Results of longitudinal X-ray diffraction studies of the structural organization of biological tissues from humans and animals in different physiological states using Russian sources of synchrotron radiation from the VEPP-3 and Siberia-2 storage rings are presented. The X-ray diffraction patterns of mucus and epithelial tissues show many orders of Debye rings at the main spacing of 4.65 (±0.15) nm, which was attributed to proteoglycan systems of the extracellular matrix of different tissues. The periodicity was experimentally shown to be invariable at a nanoscale level in a broad evolutionary framework. The nanostructural transformation of proteoglycan systems was found to be induced by the synergistic effect of high-frequency electrosurgical welding, which is widely used in clinical surgery. Through the lens of statistical physics of polymer networks, proteoglycans can be considered as labile systems capable of modifying adaptation through the formation of reversible chelate complexes with calcium cations.