Histochemical analysis of the role of class I and class II Clostridium histolyticum collagenase in the degradation of rat pancreatic extracellular matrix for islet isolation.

To understand why class II Clostridium histolyticum collagenase is much more effective than class I in the isolation of rat pancreatic islets, we analyzed the role of these collagenases in pancreatic tissue dissociation. Crude collagenase was purified and then fractionated into class I and II with different enzyme activities and protein compositions. Pancreatic tissue was incubated with either class I, class II, or class I + II, with or without added protease, under conditions that eliminated endogenous proteolytic activity.

Different roles of class I and class II Clostridium histolyticum collagenase in rat pancreatic islet isolation.

Crude Clostridium histolyticum collagenase was purified by gel filtration and fractionated by anion exchange chromatography into class I with high collagen digestion activity (CDA) and low FALGPA (2-furanacryloyl-L-leucylglycyl-L-prolyl-L-alanine) hydrolysis activity (FHA), class II with low CDA and high FHA, and a fraction called class I/II with intermediate activities. The roles of these collagenase classes in rat pancreatic islet isolation were investigated. Dissociations were carried out with 360 mg of pancreatic tissue in 10 ml of buffer containing 10% (wt/vol) albumin to suppress endogenous proteolytic activity, 100 U of C.