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Effects of Chronological Age and Postmortem Aging on Thermal Shrinkage Temperature of Bovine Intramuscular Collagen^1,2

Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907

Abstract

The thermal shrinkage temperature of intramuscular collagen from cattle of widely different ages was determined at different times postmortem. Differential scanning calorimetry performed on physically isolated connective tissue samples revealed that intramuscular collagen of relatively old animals shrinks at slightly higher temperatures than that of relatively young animals. These age-related differences probably resulted from the existence of varying numbers of total and(or) heat-stable intermolecular cross-links. A postmortem decline in thermal shrinkage temperature was observed in samples obtained at 45 min, 24 h and 7 d postmortem. The decline may have resulted from changes in number of total and(or) heat-stable cross-links but apparently was not caused directly by muscle pH decline. Collagenolytic cathepsins may have attacked collagen structures or ion shifts in the postmortem period may have disrupted collagen structures by direct effects on or by dehydration of the collagen fibril.

Key Words: Collagen Shrinkage • Chronological Age • Postmortem Aging

¹ Journal Paper No. 8476 of the Purdue Agr. Exp. Sta., Dept. of Anim. Sci.

² The technical assistance of Anna Marie Bracker is gratefully acknowledged.

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