El-ta'alu A. Molecular and cellular mechanisms of age-related changes of connective tissue functional properties

The object of study: molecular and cellular mechanisms of the relationship between metabolism of connective tissue structural biopolymers and its functional properties. Aim of study: to reveal the features of the relationship between postnatal ontogeny of type I collagen, elastin and glycosaminoglycans in the skin, aorta and caudall tendons, and functional properties of these tissues. Methods: radio isotope analysis, analytical determination of aldehyde and є-amino groups, ion-exchange chromatography, measurements of visco-elastic properties, measurements of their kinetics and energy of hydrothermal contraction, fibroblast cultivation, methods of statistical analysis. Theoretical and practical results, novelty: а quantitative assessment of the relationship between age-related synthesis, breakdown and contents of collagen, elastin and glycosaminoglycans, as well as collagen processing in skin, aorta and tail tendon, and their functional properties was for the first time carried out; demonstrated that age-related changes in fibrillogenesis and size of collagen fibers in tissues are determined by changes in the intensity of oxidative deamination of lysyl and hydroxylysyl and intracellular formation of Schiff bases; established that the basis of age-related reduction in the accumulation of structural biopolymers in tissues is related to a decrease in the intensity of their synthesis by fibroblasts, with increasing number of cell divisions. Field of application: results allow deepening of current understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms of morphogenesis, development and age-related changes of connective tissue properties in health and disease. Revealed features of these mechanisms at different stages of postnatal ontogenesis can be used in pediatrics, gerontology, sports medicine, surgery, and orthopedics, for the treatment of connective tissue diseases.