Figure 6.
Degradation of monomeric collagen by bacterial collagenase and human skin collagenase. Intact collagen and collagenase-treated collagen were resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. α1(I) and α2(I) bands were quantified (together) by densitometry scanning after staining with Coomassie brilliant blue. Values for intact collagen were set at 1.0 and the others valued normalized to this. Inset: Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showing the appearance of intact and degraded collagen. Note: the major difference between the two enzyme preparations is the production of characteristic one-quarter-size and three-quarter-size fragments by the human skin collagenase but not the bacterial collagenase.