Influence of oxazolidines and zirconium oxalate crosslinkers on the hydrothermal, enzymatic, and thermo mechanical stability of type 1 collagen fiber

Stabilization of type I rat tail tendon (RTT) collagen by crosslink agent oxazolidine and zirconium oxalate was studied to understand the effect on the thermal, enzymatic and mechanical stability of collagen. The results show that both oxazolidine and zirconium oxalate imparts thermal stability to collagen, and oxazolidine exhibits a marked increase in the peak temperature and enthalpy changes when compared to both native and zirconium oxalate tanned RTT. There is a decrease in the peak temperature and the enthalpy changes of oxazolidine tanned RTT fibers after treatment with urea, suggesting the possibility of alterations in the secondary structure of collagen after tanning. Oxazolidine, which forms carbocationic intermediates species in solution, have better crosslinking with collagen as seen from viscometry studies and hence provides better enzymatic stability to collagen than zirconium, which largely forms monomeric species in solution. Zirconium does not seem to change the tensile strength of RTT fibers significantly in wet condition as well as oxazolidine.