Abstract: Type Ⅰ, Ⅲ and Ⅴ collagens were extracted from bovine dermis and cornea by using pepsin treatment in acetic acid solution, followed by salt precipitation and dialysis, to purify and isolate each type of collagens. The preparation process was analyzed by using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). A reducing agent, 2-mercaptoethanol, was used to remove disulfide bonds and analyze the structure of the bonds involved between α chains in some types of collagens. The use of delayed reducing methods resulted in the difference between α1(Ⅲ) and α1(Ⅰ) chains in a mixture containing type Ⅰ and Ⅲ collagens. The structure of disulfide bonds among α chains exists potentially in type Ⅴ collagen prepared from the pepsin-treatment extraction at 4 ℃, which differs from type Ⅲ collagen in relation to the locations of disulfide bonds. Compared with pepsin-treated collagen at 4 ℃, the relative molecular weights of α1(Ⅴ) and α2(Ⅴ) chains treated at room temperature decrease by 4.6% and 6.0%, respectively. It is concluded that type Ⅰ, Ⅲ and Ⅴ collagens can be prepared from bovine dermis and cornea by the use of pepsin treatment, salt precipitation and dialysis. The interchain disulfide bonds lie potentially near the edges of termini of type Ⅴ collagen molecules in extracellular matrix, and a small number of interchain crosslinks exist in type Ⅴ collagen.Collagen is a main constituent protein of extracellular matrix (ECM), and it exists widely in dense connective tissue. Studies on the changes in the mechanical and structural properties of collagen, relating to its preparation, will not only help improve the use of collagen in the biomedical field, but also improve our understanding of the biological characteristics of ECM [1,2] . At least 27 types of collagen molecules, which are encoded by different genes, have been discovered (designated from Ⅰ to ⅩⅩⅦ). The primary cha-racteristic structure of polypeptides adopting collagenous triple-helical structures consists largely of the repeated sequence Gly-X-Y, where Gly represents glycine and X or Y is any other amino acid residue. Proline and hydroxyproline residues are abundant and account for approximately 22% of the amino acid residues [3,4] . The structure, assembly, and supramolecular aggregation of type Ⅰ collagen are the prototype from which our understanding of collagenous structure has developed, particularly fibrillar collagens [5] .Collagens have been used commercially as biomaterials in numerous medical applications involving hemostasis, wound repair and controlled release of drugs [6,7] . Tissue engineering has recently made great progress and an increasing number of researchers are using collagen as a scaffold for cell growth [1,[8][9][10] . This relates to the preparation, structure and properties of collagens, specifically the structural modifications for a desired characteristic.Type Ⅰ, Ⅲand Ⅴ collagens used in this paper are fibrillar collagens, which are characterized by an uninterrupted helical domain of approximately 300 nm in ...