J. E. Rall

A new fibrous structure from fibrous tissue and fibroblasts

A structure that often looked like 200 A particles spaced 600–700 A apart along a thinner fiber was first found in bovine thyroid polyribosome preparations. Further experiments suggested that these strands were associated with connective tissue. Although the particle separation along the fiber was approximately the major spacing of native collagen and in some preparations the fiber between the particles showed beading somewhat similar to embryonic collagen, these strands were not collagen since they were unaffected by collagenase. In very clean preparations the fiber between the particles appeared to be a bundle of several smaller fibers.