Thermostability of rat sarcoma M1 procollagen solutions, procollagen fibers and whole tissues

In close to equilibrium conditions (1° per 400 min), the DSC measurements demonstrated that the melting parameters of white rat sarcoma M1 procollagen equaled to Tm = 34.4 °C and ΔTm = 2.7°, and the same parameters of fibers reconstructed from those solutions of procollagen were Tm = 38.5 °C and ΔT = 3.1°. These values were by 1.0° lower and 0.8° wider, and by 1.7° lower and 0.7° wider in comparison with the parameters of procollagen and fibers of healthy rat tissue, accordingly. The simultaneous increase in melting temperature and melting width, and a weak decrease in melting enthalpy demonstrated that sarcoma M1 procollagen had some defects. The considerable decrease by 7° in melting temperature and decrease in thermostability of procollagen fibrils in case of sarcoma M1 in comparison to the healthy norm gives a good prospective potential of using this approach as a quick DSC test to detect various sarcomas, including human sarcomas, by comparing the biopsy material or postsurgical tissues with the normal samples.