The Structure of Collagen

A collagenous fiber is a bundle of many macrofibrils. Each macrofibrilis in turn a bundle of numerous microfibrils. The microfibril is composed of many tropocollagen helices. Each of these assembled from three polypeptide chains twisted together.

An animation is available that allows the viewer to travel down the level of details from collagen bundles down to individual collagen (G-X-Y) triple helix.

collagen, procollagen, microfibril, macrofibril, tropocollagen, helix, helices, polypeptide, GXY