Definition of "elastin" [e•las•tin]

• A protein similar to collagen that is the principal structural component of elastic fibers. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "My thesis involved the amino acid analysis of the protein elastin, which was then thought to play a role in coronary artery disease and I completed the requirements for my degree at Columbia late in 1937 and went directly to the laboratory of Max Bergmann at the Rockefeller Institute."
• "Some are made of really tough stuff called elastin."
• "Study author and plastic surgeon Brian Rinker explained that the smoking connection was logical because "smoking breaks down a protein in the skin called elastin, which gives youthful skin its elastic appearance and supports the breast.""