The connective tissues of fish VIII. Comparative studies on hake, cod and catfish collagens

Abstract

Summary Some properties of the collagens of myocommata and skin from three species of fish are described. The musculature of hake separates readily into flakes because of intrinsic weakness in the connective tissue. The corresponding tissue of catfish is unusually strong and holds the musculature together under almost all conditions, while that of cod has properties intermediate between the other two. Skin is stronger than myocommata, thickness for thickness, but the order of strength between species is still hake < cod < catfish. The acid‐soluble collagen of hake in citrate buffer has the highest thermal denaturation temperature of the three species (19.4° compared with 13–4° for catfish) and the highest content of imino acids. It also has the highest proportion of stable mfra‐molecular crosslinks.