Purified Type 1 Atelocollagen powder is >99% pure and insoluble at neutral pH. The material will solubilize when dissolved in acidic (pH 3.0) solutions.
Atelocollagen is a collagen solubilized by protease and its physical properties are nearly identical to those of natural insoluble collagen. However, atelocollagen has other favorable characteristics not found in the natural substance.
Collagen is known for its very low antigenicity (or reactivity, i.e., it causes little immune response) because most of the collagen molecule is composed of a G-X-Y amino acid sequence that differs little even among different animal species. The slight amount of antigenicity that is seen in collagen is thought to be due to the telopeptides attached to each end of the collagen molecule, which do not contain the G-X-Y sequence. Since the telopeptides are not present in atelocollagen, the antigenicity of atelocollagen is even lower than that of collagen.
In addition to its low antigenicity, atelocollagen is generally obtainable with a high degree of purity. This feature is due to the protease treatment, which when used to extract atelocollagen breaks down other protein contaminants.