Preface

The elusiveness and intrigue of human physiology and the appeal to understand it better is a major source of inspiration for millions of scientists and physicians worldwide. To understand a machine as complex as the human body one must look at the various elements that make up the machine. Historically, major emphasis has been placed on understanding cellular processes and their contribution to physiology and pathology. Over the last thirty-five years, the advent of and easier access to new imaging techniques and methods to understand molecular structure and function (various microscopy methods, X-ray diffraction and scanning, X-ray fluorescence, etc.) have made it much easier to understand sub- and intra-cellular processes, leading to the need for us to understand the extracellular matrix (ECM).

After initially considering the ECM as a simple connective tissue that literally connects things in the body, research has brought us to understand the complexity and the intelligence of the various ECM constituents. Understanding the molecular and packing structures of various fibrillar collagens (the most prevalent protein in mammals) has been made possible through synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments. Changes to native collagen structures because of disease as well as a mechanical and chemical insult are also now more readily explored and explained as a result of these techniques. They also bring to the fore the importance of the physical, chemical, and biological attributes that trigger, restrict, moderate, and modify intracellular pathways in both good and bad ways. For instance, the timesensitive activation of discoidin domain receptors by fibrillar collagens is directly linked with various physiological and pathological intracellular cascades [1].

Other ECM elements associated with fibrillar collagen have also become major targets for various therapeutic and surgical applications. Hyaluronic acid (HA), one of the chief elements of the ECM, has garnered significant attention and research into its biology and therapeutic applications. Several advancements and contributions have been made in the use of HA in wound dressings, bone and cartilage regeneration, cosmetics, and food applications in just the last five years.

We are at a time when understanding biology and applying it to biomedical interventions is becoming faster and we are generating more interesting and promising applications every day. I was highly enthused when IntechOpen reached out to me about serving as the editor for this book. I have spent the last eleven years of my life, through doctoral and postdoctoral studies, in the area of ECM biology, and I am more intrigued by the complexity and challenges it presents. This book is a collection of some of the more recent developments in the areas of collagen and hyaluronic acid structure and function. I would like to thank all the authors and their teams for working on this project with me and submitting their amazing manuscripts. It was genuinely rewarding to have reviewed and edited your work.

I would also like to thank my co-editors, Prof. Joseph Orgel from the Illinois Institute of Technology and Prof. Zvi Loewy from the Touro College of Pharmacy and New York Medical College. Special thanks to Prof. Orgel for being my mentor and helping me become a scientist.

I would like to express my humble gratitude to the staff at IntechOpen for giving me this opportunity to work on this exciting project. Special thanks to Author Service Manager Ms. Marijana Francetic and commissioning editor Ms. Jelena Germuth for their constant support, encouragement, patience, and perseverance.

I cannot describe in words how grateful I am to my wife Mounika for her constant support and encouragement through all my endeavors. I would like to dedicate this book to my parents, Venkata Ramana Murthy and Rajya Lakshmi Madhurapantula. You instilled in me the values of hard work and a strong education. Your love and support have given me the motivation to choose this field and become a better human being.

#### **Rama Sashank Madhurapantula**

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA

#### **Joseph Orgel P.R.O.**

Illinois Institute of Technology, United States of America

#### **Zvi Loewy**

New York Medical College, USA

### **References**

[1] Orgel JP, Madhurapantula RS. A structural prospective for collagen receptors such as DDR and their binding of the collagen fibril. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Molecular Cell Research. 2019 Nov 1;1866(11):118478.

### Section 1
