Separation of collagen cyanogen bromide-derived peptides by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

A new technique for separation of the CNBr cleavage products of collagen is described. It involves the use of a 30 nm pore reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography column eluted with a linear gradient of acetonitrile/water containing 0.01 M-heptafluorobutyric acid. The separation of type I, type II and type III CNBr peptides is described. Resolution is particularly good for the low-molecular-weight peptides. The method is fast, quantitative and sensitive, and the complete volatility of the eluent facilitates the recovery of the separated peptides.