A spectroscopic collagenase assay using peroxidase-labeled collagen.

A quantitative collagenase assay detecting soluble collagen fragments is described in this paper. Using the reagent N-succinimidyl 3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate (SPDP) type I collagen was conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (POD) which was employed as a reporter enzyme. POD was preferentially linked to the TC B fragment in a ratio of 1.4 mol POD/mol collagen. The conjugation product was immobilized on AH-Sepharose via carbodiimide coupling to form the final collagenase substrate used in the assay. POD activity in the supernatants caused by liberated TC B fragments exhibited a linear relationship for collagenase concentrations up to 100 micrograms/ml bacterial collagenase. Over an incubation period of 4 h the lowest detection limits found were 20 ng/100 microliters for bacterial collagenase and 60 ng/100 microliters for human leukocyte collagenase. Incubation of the assay mixture with 5 micrograms trypsin resulted in 3.8% of the activity released by the equivalent amount of leukocyte collagenase. The assay developed here has been shown to be sensitive and specific for collagenase, with the additional advantage that this method is suited for simple and economic handling.