Biochemical analysis and electron microscopy of human mitral valve collagen in patients with various etiologies of mitral valve diseases.

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Abstract
Biochemical analyses and EM of mitral valve collagen were carried out in 29 patients with various mitral valve diseases. They were divided into 3 groups: rheumatic heart disease (15 patients), isolated rupture of chordae tendineae (8 patients), and floppy mitral valve (6 patients). Normal mitral valves obtained at necropsy from 6 patients who died from extracardiac causes were used for control observations. Results of the electrphoretic analysis of the collagen of normal and diseased valves showed that all valves contained collagen types I, III and AB collagen with similar electrophoretic patterns. EM observations and comparisons of the segment-long-spacing crystallites of each type of collagen revealed similar band patterns, irrespective of the normal or diseased valves sources. The composition and primary molecular structure of mitral valve collagen are usually not altered in a wide variety of disease processes affecting the mitral valve.