Structural implications from an electronmicroscopic comparison of procollagen V with procollagen I, pC-collagen I, procollagen IV, and a Drosophila procollagen.

Chick embryo procollagen V, procollagen I, and pC-collagen I were sprayed, rotary shadowed, and compared electronmicroscopically with mouse procollagen IV and Drosophila procollagen produced by cell cultures and prepared in the same way. All the molecules appeared as threads and had a prominent knob protrusion at one end. For procollagen I and pC-collagen I this must correspond to the carboxyl propeptides, and most likely corresponds to the similarly sized carboxyl propeptides of procollagen IV. Procollagen V appeared as a thread of nearly the same length as procollagen I but with substantial knobs at both ends, corresponding to its known propeptides. The length of procollagen V and the known, successive processing of its propeptides make procollagen V more similar to the interstitial collagens than to the basement membrane procollagen IV, which is 1.4 times as long and has so far been found not to be processed. Drosophila procollagen resembles procollagen IV in length and appearance.