Enzyme-assisted purification of denatured atelocollagen, using pronase as scavenging agent.

Collagen liquid-crystal characteristics can be exploited in advanced applications, like microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), collagen-silica biohybrids or intelligent substrates for tissue engineering. Such applications necessarily require high purity of the collagen colloidal solutions, in terms of macromolecular unitary composition, which is equivalent to almost zero poydispersity. In this work a protocol for the enzyme-assisted removal of non-triple helical polypeptide entities in atelocollagen solutions was conceived, using pronase as scavenger, in the presence of poly(ethyleneglycol) (PEG 10000) as a crowding agent, trimethylamine-N-oxide dihydrate, (TMAO) as kosmotropic agent and anhydrous sodium sulfate as anti-chaotrope salt.