Tomo-SAXS: Imaging full-field molecular-to-macroscale biophysics of fibrous tissues
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: School of Biological Sciences
Abstract
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Organisations
Publications
Eckersley A
(2022)
Peptide location fingerprinting identifies species- and tissue-conserved structural remodelling of proteins as a consequence of ageing and disease
in Matrix Biology
Eckersley A
(2021)
Peptide Location Fingerprinting Reveals Tissue Region-Specific Differences in Protein Structures in an Ageing Human Organ.
in International journal of molecular sciences
Tuieng R
(2025)
Impact of therapeutic X-ray exposure on collagen I and associated proteins
in Acta Biomaterialia
| Description | Please see EP/V011235/1. Additionally in publication: 10.1016/j.actbio.2025.03.004. Biological tissues are exposed to X-rays in medical applications (such as diagnosis and radiotherapy) and in research studies (for example microcomputed X-ray tomography: microCT). Radiotherapy may deliver doses up to 50Gy to both tumour and healthy tissues, resulting in undesirable clinical side effects which can compromise quality of life. Whilst cellular responses to X-rays are relatively well-characterised, X-ray-induced structural damage to the extracellular matrix (ECM) is poorly understood. This study tests the hypotheses that ECM proteins and ECM-rich tissues (purified collagen I and rat tail tendons respectively) are structurally compromised by exposure to X-ray doses used in breast radiotherapy. Protein gel electrophoresis demonstrated that breast radiotherapy equivalent doses can induce fragmentation of the constituent a chains in solubilised purified collagen I. However, assembly into fibrils, either in vitro or in vivo, prevented X-ray-induced fragmentation but not structural changes (as characterised by LC-MS/MS and peptide location fingerprinting: PLF). In subsequent experiments exposure to higher (synchrotron) X-ray doses induced substantial fragmentation of solubilised and fibrillar (chicken tendon) collagen I. LC-MS/MS and PLF analysis of synchrotron-irradiated tendon identified structure-associated changes in collagens I, VI, XII, proteoglycans including aggrecan, decorin, and fibromodulin, and the elastic fibre component fibulin-1. Thus, exposure to radiotherapy X-rays can affect the structure of key tissue ECM components, although additional studies will be required to understand dose dependent effects. |
| Exploitation Route | Please see EP/V011235/1 |
| Sectors | Other |