Figure 6
Electron micrograph of suprafibrillar arrays adapted with permission by Rockefeller University Press from Wess, Purslow & Kielty (1998). Here, in addition to the characteristic 56 nm periodicity that can be observed in rotary shadowed microfibrils, there is evidence of specific interfibrillar interactions. The specific D/3 staggered relationship between beaded fibrillin microfibrils can be seen in a rotary shadowed aggregate. X-ray diffraction evidence points to far more of such associations occurring in the intact tissue since the third and sixth meridional orders of diffraction on a 56 nm lattice are predominant. |