Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths
We investigated the characteristics of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the soft tissue of two frozen baby woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) that died and were buried in Siberian permafrost approximately 40,000 years ago. Morphological and biochemical analyses of mammoth lung and liver demonstrat...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:debe3d79d1484544ba0776340c79d45c 2023-05-15T17:57:47+02:00 Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths Shunji Hattori Tomomi Kiriyama-Tanaka Masashi Kusubata Yuki Taga Testuya Ebihara Yuki Kumazawa Katsuyuki Imai Mitsutaka Miura Yoshihiro Mezaki Alexei Tikhonov Haruki Senoo 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doaj.org/article/debe3d79d1484544ba0776340c79d45c EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8555803/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 https://doaj.org/article/debe3d79d1484544ba0776340c79d45c PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 10 (2021) Medicine R Science Q article 2021 ftdoajarticles 2022-12-31T09:04:09Z We investigated the characteristics of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the soft tissue of two frozen baby woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) that died and were buried in Siberian permafrost approximately 40,000 years ago. Morphological and biochemical analyses of mammoth lung and liver demonstrated that those soft tissues were preserved at the gross anatomical and histological levels. The ultrastructure of ECM components, namely a fibrillar structure with a collagen-characteristic pattern of cross-striation, was clearly visible with transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Type I and type IV collagens were detected by immunohistochemical observation. Quantitative amino acid analysis of liver and lung tissues of the baby mammoths indicated that collagenous protein is selectively preserved in these tissues as a main protein. Type I and type III collagens were detected as major components by means of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis after digestion with trypsin. These results indicate that the triple helical collagen molecule, which is resistant to proteinase digestion, has been preserved in the soft tissues of these frozen mammoths for 40,000 years. Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Shunji Hattori Tomomi Kiriyama-Tanaka Masashi Kusubata Yuki Taga Testuya Ebihara Yuki Kumazawa Katsuyuki Imai Mitsutaka Miura Yoshihiro Mezaki Alexei Tikhonov Haruki Senoo Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
We investigated the characteristics of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the soft tissue of two frozen baby woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) that died and were buried in Siberian permafrost approximately 40,000 years ago. Morphological and biochemical analyses of mammoth lung and liver demonstrated that those soft tissues were preserved at the gross anatomical and histological levels. The ultrastructure of ECM components, namely a fibrillar structure with a collagen-characteristic pattern of cross-striation, was clearly visible with transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Type I and type IV collagens were detected by immunohistochemical observation. Quantitative amino acid analysis of liver and lung tissues of the baby mammoths indicated that collagenous protein is selectively preserved in these tissues as a main protein. Type I and type III collagens were detected as major components by means of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis after digestion with trypsin. These results indicate that the triple helical collagen molecule, which is resistant to proteinase digestion, has been preserved in the soft tissues of these frozen mammoths for 40,000 years. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Shunji Hattori Tomomi Kiriyama-Tanaka Masashi Kusubata Yuki Taga Testuya Ebihara Yuki Kumazawa Katsuyuki Imai Mitsutaka Miura Yoshihiro Mezaki Alexei Tikhonov Haruki Senoo |
author_facet |
Shunji Hattori Tomomi Kiriyama-Tanaka Masashi Kusubata Yuki Taga Testuya Ebihara Yuki Kumazawa Katsuyuki Imai Mitsutaka Miura Yoshihiro Mezaki Alexei Tikhonov Haruki Senoo |
author_sort |
Shunji Hattori |
title |
Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
title_short |
Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
title_full |
Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
title_fullStr |
Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
title_full_unstemmed |
Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
title_sort |
preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doaj.org/article/debe3d79d1484544ba0776340c79d45c |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 10 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8555803/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 https://doaj.org/article/debe3d79d1484544ba0776340c79d45c |
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1766166278810107904 |