Native Clostridium histolyticum Collagenase

Collagenases are endopeptidases that digest native collagen in the triple helix region. Collagens are the major fibrous component of animal extracellular connective tissue. Bacterial collagenases differ from vertebrate collagenases in that they exhibit broader substrate specificity (Peterkofsky 1982, Birkedal-Hansen 1987) . Unlike animal collagenases that split collagen in its native triple-helical conformation (Woolley et al. 1975, Gross et al. 1974), bacterial collagenase is unique because it can degrade both water-insoluble native collagens and water-soluble denatured ones. It can attack almost all collagen types, and is able to make multiple cleavages within triple helical regions (Mookhtiar and Van Wart 1992) .