The research was conducted with two different experiments on intramuscular connective tissue obtained from Longissimus dorsi muscle of 4-year-old beef carcasses. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSQ was used to determine the denaturation onset temperature (T-o), denaturation peak temperature (T-p), and denaturation enthalpy (DeltaH(D)) of intramuscular connective tissue. In the first experiment, equilibration of the collagen in citrate buffers in the pH range 2.9-6.5 resulted in the decline of T-o and T-p with decreasing pH, but statistically significant differences were not recorded for DeltaH(D). In the second experiment, NaCl and CaCl2 solutions at 0.34, 0.68 and 1.02 ionic strength at pH 3.7-5.7 were studied. Increasing NaCl resulted in the increase of T-o and T-p, whilst T-o and T-p was decreased with increasing CaCl2. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.