ABSTRACT
The immunochemical characterization of antibodies to collagens, procollagens, and the connective tissue glycoproteins fibronectin, laminin, and chondronectin, has provided very useful tools to study questions of biological interest. Immunohistological and cytochemical methods are quite useful for connective tissue research, but as a number of discrepant results in the past and more recently show, reliable results and interpretations depend on critical application and appropriate control experiments. The data to date show that immunofluorescence technology is quite useful to screen tissues for collagens and to eventually assign a particular localization or association with recognizable structures. The major collagen found in tendons is Type I, where it forms thick bundles of fibers. Type III collagen is normally absent from the bone matrix. Extraction of the xyphoid cartilage from lathyritic chicken with neutral salt solutions and acid led to the first demonstration of the genetic heterogeneity of collagen. Rodent liver contains less collagen to start with in comparison to human.
