Fig. 3

Structural model of rat Mptx pentamer. The program ‘WHAT IF’ [41] was used to predict the 3D-structure of Mptx using the pentameric structure of human serum amyloid P component (PDB code: 1sac) as a template. a “top” view, b, c side view. Only the alpha-carbon backbone is shown (in grey). a, b: orange: loop where four residues have been deleted relative to 1sac; yellow: single disulfide bond; green spheres: calcium ions; red and grey spheres: acetate ion. c: basic (blue) and acidic (red) side chains of Mptx (upper) and SAP (lower). d: shows the surface electrostatic potential of the Mptx (upper) and SAP (lower) monomers. The top is shown on the left and the bottom on the right. Red is negative and blue is positive; calcium ions (just visible) in green