Bacterial collagenases differ considerably in their structure and functions. The collagenases ColH and ColG from Clostridium histolyticum and ColA expressed by Clostridium perfringens are well-characterized collagenases that cleave triple-helical collagen, which were therefore termed as ´true´ collagenases. ColA from Bacillus cereus (B. cereus) has been added to the collection of true collagena...

Type II pneumocytes are essential for repair of the injured alveolar epithelium. The effect of two MMP collagenases, MMP-1 and MMP-13 on alveolar epithelial repair was studied in vitro. The A549 alveolar epithelial cell line and primary rat alveolar epithelial cell cultures were used. Cell adhesion and cell migration were measured with and without exogenous MMP-1. Wound healing of a cell monola...

The heterogeneity of human collagenases has been examined using a monoclonal antibody to neutrophil collagenase. This antibody inhibited collagenase activity and, when covalently coupled to Sepharose, bound both latent and active enzyme. Although human neutrophil collagenase was inhibited by the antibody, the activity of human skin and rheumatoid synovial collagenase was not significantly dimin...

Clostridial collagenases are among the most efficient enzymes to degrade by far the most predominant protein in the biosphere. Here we present crystal structures of the peptidases of three clostridial collagenase isoforms (ColG, ColH, and ColT). The comparison of unliganded and liganded structures reveals a quaternary subdomain dynamics. In the unliganded ColH structure, this globular dynamics ...

We investigated cells and conditioned media of the three human keratinocyte cell lines HaCaT (non-tumorigenic), A5 (benign, tumorigenic) and II-4RT (malignant, tumorigenic) with regard to production and secretion of the collagenases-1 to -3 (MMP-1, MMP-8 and MMP-13) and TIMP-1 using semi-nested RT-PCR, Western blots, ELISA, immunocytochemistry and casein zymography. Transcripts of MMP-1, -8, -1...

The actions of recombinant human fibroblast collagenase (MMP1), purified polymorphonuclear leucocyte collagenase (MMP8) and their N-terminal catalytic domain fragments against cartilage aggrecan and an aggrecan G1-G2 fragment have been investigated in vitro. After activation with recombinant human stromelysin and typsin, both collagenases were able to degrade human and porcine aggrecans to a si...