A highly specific and quantitative method for determining type III/I collagen ratios in tissues.

The distribution of type I and type III collagens in rat, bovine and human skin were examined by a quantitative 2-D CNBr peptide mapping method. The procedure involved the solubilization of tissues by digestion with CNBr, radioactive labeling in vitro by [3H]-NaBH4 in dimethylformamide, reduction by mercaptoethanol, a second CNBr digestion and 2-D (isoelectric focusing and NaDodSO4 electrophoresis) mapping. The amounts of type I and type III collagen peptide spots in the fluorographs of 2-D maps were analyzed by 2-D scanning densitometer/analyzer. Mixtures containing various ratios of purified type I and type III collagen were used to obtain a standard curve. Using this procedure we were able to determine that in adult human skin (age range 35-65 years) 22% (+1.3%) of the labelled collagen is type III. This value is significantly higher than that was previously estimated by less accurate methods.