Separation of type IX collagen from other cartilage collagens by hydrophobic interaction chromatography

Collagen type IX was separated from other cartilage collagens (types II and XI) by hydrophobic interaction chromatography on a 25 cm X 8 mm I.D. stainless-steel column packed with Separon HEMA 1000 Bio. The mobile phase was 0.84 M ammonium sulphate with 0.1 M potassium dihydrogenphosphate (pH 6.5). Under these conditions only collagen type IX was eluted from the column; it could be monitored with UV detection (218 nm) or selectively with fluorescence detection (excitation 330 nm, emission filter 389 nm). The method can be used for the isolation and quantitation of collagen type IX. The assay was linear in the range 0-10 micrograms, the correlation coefficient was 0.99, precision 5.5% and accuracy 13%. The detection limit was about 0.6 microgram.