On the molecular mechanisms of elastin coacervation and coacervate calcification

Abstract

Structural aspects and molecular details of the non-ionic simple coacervation of elastin peptide and water binary systems are considered from the viewpoint of the physical methods of proton and carbon-13 magnetic resonance, optical spectroscopy, high resolution electron microscopy and from the point of view of entropic aspects of inverse temperature transitions. Simple coacervation of tropoelastin is presented as the essential concentrating and aligning mechanism for elastogenesis. Scanning electron microscopy and electron probe microanalysis data from this laboratory are reviewed, which show that the non-ionic simple coacervates of α-elastin and tropoelastin serve throughout their bulk as matrices for the initiation of calcification.