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Science 5 October 1973:
Vol. 182. no. 4107, pp. 70 - 71
DOI: 10.1126/science.182.4107.70
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Articles

Gelatin: A Poor Substrate for a Mammalian Collagenase

Peter A. McCroskery 1, Sumner Wood Jr. 2, and Edward D. Harris Jr. 3

1 Dartmouth/Hitchcock Medical Center, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
2 Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research, Rahway, New Jersey 07065
3 Dartmouth/ Hitchcock Medical Center

A rabbit tumor collagenase was purified more than 5000-fold. In this form it degrades native collagen in helical conformation at 37°C, pH 7.6, into two fragments, but it had little capacity to cleave gelatin, an indication of the importance of higher-order structure of substrate for this enzyme in pure form. It is likely that, in vivo, enzymes other than collagenase degrade gelatin polypeptides produced by primary collagenolysis.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)