Ultrarapid purification of collagen type I for tissue engineering applications.

Acid-solubilized collagen type I (COL1) can form highly organized, three-dimensional scaffolds for a wide variety of bioengineering and cell culture applications. A rapid COL1 isolation method would be a valuable tool for both basic and translational researchers because conventional techniques require days or weeks to complete, typically use nonhuman animal tissues as a source material, and do not efficiently purify autologous COL1 from small samples. Here, we describe a 3-h method to isolate COL1 from rabbit, lamb, and human skin in sufficient quantities for fabrication of autologously derived tissues by using a rapid agitation technique and incorporating centrifugal filtration units into a traditional isolation procedure.