A Critical Disulfide Bridge in Elastins Modeling from Spectroscopic Data to 3D Dtructures

The C-terminal region of the tropoelastin in the human and animals species (bovine, sheep, rat and chicken), contains the only two cysteine residues known in the primary structure of this precursor of elastin. An intrachain disulfide bridge was evidenced by use of biochemical methods [1] as well as by theoretical prediction [2]. It was recently postulated [1] the possibility of existence of that conserved disulfide bridge in the macropolymer elastin; its biological function being to assume the anchorage of the tropoelastin monomers to the microfibrils. Thus, the loop containing that bridge could have a critical role in the initiation of the elastogenesis and the spreading of the elastic network with the microfibrillar scaffold.