Low Temperature Electron Diffraction and Beam Effects in Tendon Collagen

Abstract

In the course of experiments to obtain electron diffraction from frozen rat tail tendon (RTT) collagen, a characteristic development of perforations relating to the banding pattern was observed under conditions of moderate beam intensity. This is most likely to be due to an etching process resulting from ionization or sublimation of bound or preferentially retained water molecules in the band-interband region and could provide a means of visualization of the location of such water.