Dual hormonal involvement in the regulation of rat uterine collagenase activity.

Hormonal control of rat uterine collagenase activities which use collagen types I, III, and V as the substrates has been studied. The collagenases are shown to be regulated in general by estradiol as well as by progesterone. However, the enzyme activity that uses type III collagen as the substrate appears to have a preferential response to progesterone over estradiol.