Abstract: In order to analyze the molecular mechanism of rapid gelatinization of rabbit skin collagen, its acid-induced gelatinization process was simulated by YASARA software. The root mean square deviation (RMSD) indicated that acid treatment promoted the dissociation of non-helical subunits from the collagen molecules, while it had little influence on the conformation of single subunits. During the initial stage of acid treatment, the hydrogen bonds present in the triple helix region of rabbit skin collagen were rapidly destroyed in a short time. After simulation for 50 ns, the number of hydrogen bonds remained relatively stable, showing consistency with the actual results. Because of the destruction of hydrogen bonds during the initial stage of acid treatment, the triple helix structure was transformed into other secondary structures. With the increase of simulation time, the total relative content of α-helix and β-sheet increased firstly and then decreased, and the best degree of gelatinization was obtained at its highest level.

Key words: collagen, gelatinization, structural change, molecular simulation, mechanism