The biochemistry of collagen makes the assay of its degradation complex. Hidden epitopes are linear amino acid sequences that are not normally available for antibody binding when they are contained within an intact helical structure, but they become exposed once the collagen triple helix has been cleaved and denatured. This chapter describes the use of an antibody raised against such an epitope, combined with selective proteolytic extraction, to assay collagen degradation.
Animals Biological Assay