A Classical Synthesis of the Collagen-like Peptides with the Sequence Z(GlyProPro)nOBut and their characterization with circular dichroism and ultracentrifugation

Oligopeptides with the sequence Z(GlyProPro)nOBut (n = 3–7) were synthesized along a clasical pathway. Generally long fragments were condensed in order to allow an easy separation of the products from the reactants. It is established by molecular weight determination and measurements of circular dichroism that the peptides form the collagen-like triple helix in methanol and that they assume the random coil conformation in dilute acetic acid. The circular dichroism spectra agree reasonably well with the corresponding spectra for (ProProGly)10 which was obtained by solid phase synthesis in another laboratory.