Fig 1.
Sample pieces from mammoth and elephant tissues.
(a) Sample pieces of lung, liver and genitals from baby mammoth (Masha) that were preserved in ethanol solution. Scale bar is 1 cm. (b) Sample pieces of bone and kidney from Indian elephant. Scale bar is 1cm.
Fig 2.
Histochemical observation of soft tissue of mammoths.
(a) Haematoxylin and eosin staining of liver section from Dima. Scale bar is 100 μm. (b) Azan staining of liver section from Dima. Scale bar is 100 μm. (c) Ishii–Ishii’s silver impregnation of liver section from Dima. Scale bar is 100 μm.
Fig 3.
Scanning electron microscope images of mammoth soft tissues.
(a) Liver section from Masha. (b) Lung section from Masha.
Fig 4.
Transmission electron microscope images of mammoth soft tissues.
(a) Lung section from Dima. (b) Higher magnification of same section. The blue bar indicates collagen molecule length; the white bars indicate the 67-nm-period banding pattern of collagen fibers.
Fig 5.
Immunofluorescence observation of mammoth soft tissues.
(a) Masha’s lung stained by anti-type IV collagen antibody. (b) Masha’s lung stained by anti-type I collagen antibody.
Table 1.
Amino acid content (Residues/1000 residues) of mammoth (Masha) lung and liver, bovine lung, and porcine liver and skin.
Representative data out of three or four analyses.
Fig 6.
Comparison of protein and collagen content in mammoth tissue and fresh tissue.
(a) Percentage of protein content against the dry weight of tissue estimated using amino acid analysis data. (b) Percentage of collagen content against the dry weight of tissue estimated using amino acid analysis data. (c) Ratio of collagen to total protein in the tissue. All the data is average of three or four independent analyses and standard deviations were indicated.
Table 2.
Estimated protein and collagen content in soft tissues from the amino acid analysis data.
Representative data out of three or four analyses.
Fig 7.
DSC analysis data of lung tissue from Masha and bovine dermis.
Table 3.
Comparison of proteins identified by LC–MS analysis in the soft tissues from Masha and tissues from the Indian elephant.
Fig 8.
Coomassie staining (upper) and silver staining (lower) of extracts of mammoth and elephant tissues after SDS-PAGE. Right margin shows the band positions of typical type I collagen α,β and γ chains.