NZ614600B2 - Probe for analyzing biological tissue and method for utilizing same - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for analysing a biological tissue, comprising applying two or more probes respectively containing collagen binding domains of two or more proteases to an isolated biological tissue, and analysing binding amounts of the probes to the biological tissue.

Description

Description Title of Invention: PROBE FOR ANALYZING BIOLOGICAL TISSUE AND METHOD FOR UTILIZING SAME Technical Field The present invention relates to a method for obtaining cells or cell populations having a high biological activity in high yield from a biological tissue by enzymatic isolation, and probes for the method.

Background Art Enzymatic isolation of cells and cell clusters from a biological tissue is useful for various purposes including transplantation of the cells and establishment of cell strains and in a wide variety of usages in the fields of therapy, diagnosis and examination. However, to dissociate a biological tissue and isolate cells or cell aggregates constituting the tissue, it is necessary to separate cells or cell aggregates to a desired level and isolate them from the cellular tissue. In separating cells and cell clusters from a biological tissue, the intercellular matrix is degraded by a mixture of proteases such as collagenase.

A biological tissue is constituted of cells and the intercellular matrix. The intercellular matrix, which is a substance for anchoring cells, includes structural materials and non-structural materials. The former ones include fibers such as a collagenic fiber, an elastic fiber and a reticular fiber; whereas the latter ones include so-called ground substances formed of sol- or gel-materials such as a glycoprotein and proteoglycan, for filling the space between fibers. A typical example of the intercellular matrix is a protein called collagen, which occupies about 1/3 of the weight of the total proteins in a living body. Collagen has a fiber structure, which is formally called a collagen fiber.

Tissues are roughly classified into four categories: an epithelial tissue, a supporting tissue, a muscular tissue and a nervous tissue. The epithelial tissue is a tissue covering the surface of a body, in which cells are densely arranged without the intercellular matrix interposed between them. The supporting tissue, which works for supporting organs, cells and the like, includes a connective tissue, a cartilage tissue, a bone tissue, blood and lymph. The muscular tissue is an integration of cells differentiated for purpose of contraction motion, in which the intercellular matrix occupies an extremely low ratio.

The muscular tissue is constituted of muscle cells, a connective tissue, blood vessels and nerve; however, it is primarily formed of muscle fibers. The nerve tissue is primarily constituted of the endoneurium and the perineurium, each containing a large amount of intercellular matrix (collagen). The connective tissue, which is a kind of supporting tissue, is constituted of adipose tissue and fibrous connective tissue (constituted of a collagen fiber and an elastic fiber) and roughly divided into hydrophobic connective tissue and dense connective tissue. The hydrophobic connective tissue is fibrous connective tissue having collagen fibers irregularly arranged therein and distributed in the subcutaneous tissue, mucosal tissue, nerve, outer membrane of blood vessel and interlobular tissue.

The content of collagen in the intercellular matrix varies depending upon the species, age, sex, tissue and living environment. However, it has not yet been sufficiently elucidated which type of collagen is included in which tissue and in which state of matrix in which amount. The feature of collagen resides in that amino acids constituting a peptide chain of a protein has a primary structure in which glycine repeatedly appears every third residue like "glycine-amino acid X-amino acid Y". It has been reported that there are about beyond 30 types of collagen proteins in a human body. The collagen most abundantly present in a body is fibrous type I collagen. Non-fibrous type IV collagen is also contained abundantly and mutually connected via an intermolecular disulfide bond, contributing to formation of a reticular tissue (Non Patent Literature 1). It is reported that Type IV collagen is present between pancreatic islets and the endocrine tissue (Non Patent Literatures 2 and 3).

It may be theoretically possible to determine the presence of a predetermined type of collagen in a target matrix by immuno-staining using antibodies against individual types of collagens. However, many types of collagens are present in wide variety types of multicellular animals. Thus, it is difficult to produce antibodies against collagens. This fact serves as an obstacle and renders it difficult to realize determination of collagen by immuno-staining.

Enzymes for degrading tissue, i.e., various types of crude collagenases derived from Clostridium histolyticum contain not only two types of collagenases but also various types of proteases (having collagen degradation activity and nonspecific protein degradation activity) and non-protease components (e.g., phospholipase). By virtue of the crude collagenase, cells and cell populations are enzymatically separated from a biological tissue.

In enzymatically separating individual cells or cell populations form a biological tissue, two types of collagenases (ColG and ColH) are reported to have important roles in attaining the yield and keeping biological activity of the cells and cell populations to be separated, and thus the quantitative ratio of them has a significant effect upon the yield and activity (Non Patent Literature 4). Also, in separating pancreatic islets from the pancreatic tissue, two types of collagenases produced by Clostridium histolyticum are used (Non Patent Literature 5, Patent Literatures 1 and 2). The present inventors have so far found that pancreatic islets with high quality can be separated by optimizing the quantitative ratio of the two types of collagenases.

It has been reported that different collagenases have mutually different collagen binding domains (Non Patent Literature 6). Up to the present, various fusion proteins formed of a functional protein and a collagen binding domain have been prepared for targeting and delivery system (DDS). Examples thereof include a collagen bindable cell growth factor (Non Patent Literature 7) prepared by binding bFGF or EGF to a collagen binding domain of a collagenase derived from Clostridium histolyticum; a fusion protein formed of bovine von Willebrand factor-derived collagen binding deca-peptide and TGF-b (Non Patent Literatures 8 and 9); and a sustained-release cell growth factor supply agent (Patent Literature 3) prepared by binding a functional peptide to a collagen binding domain of fibronectin. As described above, fusion proteins with a collagen binding domain have been prepared for targeting and visualization of tissues; however, they have never been used for analysis and separation of a biological tissue.

[0011] In order to isolate a specific tissue and cells without damaging them, it is necessary to degrade the intercellular matrix present around the tissue and cells.

However, it is not easy to degrade the intercellular matrix alone without degrading and damaging the surface of the desired cells. Particularly, in the case of a human organ, the proteolytic degradability varies depending upon e.g., the age, sex, habit and medical history. Thus, isolation has to be performed empirically by determining the type of enzyme and reaction time thereof.

To diabetic patients, a therapy (pancreatic islet transplantation) for transplanting pancreatic islets isolated from the pancreas is applied. For transplantation of pancreatic islets, it is essential to separate cell clumps called pancreatic islets present in the pancreatic tissue. The pancreatic tissue must be degraded without giving any damage to pancreatic islets to separate them. However, the state of the intercellular matrix significantly varies depending upon the type of animal, site of the tissue, age or sex of an individual body and growth environment. Particularly, collagen significantly changes in physical properties depending upon aging. Nevertheless, to pancreatic tissues different in state, a predetermined quantitative ratio of enzymes is applied in accordance with a protocol (except that degradation time alone is changed) and an enzymatic treatment is performed while visually checking the degree of degradation of the pancreas. For this reason, the quantity and quality of the pancreatic islets thus obtained vary depending upon the medical institution, medical workers and the state of the target pancreas.

If the type and quantity of protease to be used can be accurately and easily found from the protein composition of the extracellular matrix or organ to be degraded, target cells and the like can be isolated while maintaining high activity.

Citation List Patent Literature Patent Literature 1: WO96/00283 Patent Literature 2: WO98/24889 Patent Literature 3: WO02/014505 Non Patent Literature Non Patent Literature 1: Inoue et al., J Cell Biol, 97, 1524-1537 (1983) Non Patent Literature 2: SJ Hughes, P McShane, Transplant Proceedings, 37, 3444-34445 (2005) Non Patent Literature 3: SJ Hughes, A Clark, P McShane, Transplantation, 81(3) 423-426 (2006) Non Patent Literature 4: D Brandhorst et al., Transplantation Proceedings, 37(8), 3450-3451 (2005) Non Patent Literature 5: E Linetsky et al., Diabetes, 46, 1120-1123 (1997) Non Patent Literature 6: K Watanabe, Appl Microbiol Biotechnol, 63, 520-526 (2004) Non Patent Literature 7: N Nishi, O Matsushita, K Yuube, H Miyanaka, A Okabe, F Wada, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA.; 95(12):7018-7023 (1998) Non Patent Literature 8: Tuan et al., Connective Tissue Research, 34(1), 1-9 (1996) Non Patent Literature 9: Han et al., Protein Expression and Purification 11, 169-178 (1997) Summary of Invention Technical Problem An object of the present invention is to provide a means for quickly and efficiently separating cells and cell populations having a high biological activity from a biological tissue; more specifically, to obtain target cells and cell populations in high yield without decreasing the physiological activity of physiologically active substances in a biological tissue, cells or/and organs.

Solution to Problem The inventors prepared probes for analyzing biological components using fusion proteins of substrate binding domains (biological-component binding domains) that two types of enzymes have, and visualization proteins. The inventors then found that target cells and cell populations can be more efficiently separated while maintaining a high biological activity by analyzing the binding amounts of probes and predicting action of the enzyme to a biological tissue, thereby determining, e.g., an optimal quantitative ratio of enzymes and action time.

In short, the present invention relates to a method for analyzing a biological tissue, which includes applying two or more probes respectively containing biological-component binding domains through which two or more proteins bind to a specific biological component, to an isolated biological tissue and analyzing binding amounts of the probes to the biological tissue.

The probes to be used in the present invention are designed to be visualized by a molecule imaging technique known in the art. More specifically, the probes are labeled with visualization molecules such as a fluorescent molecule, a luminescent molecule, a positron nuclide and a radioisotope.

[0020] Examples of the visualization molecules include fluorescent molecules such as GFP, EGFP, YFP, BFP, CFP, DsRED, tdTomato and RFP, and luminescent molecules such as a luciferase protein, but are not limited to these.

The luciferase protein preferably has a peak wavelength and luminescent intensity different from those of a wild type luciferase present in nature.

A fluorescent molecule and a luminescent molecule may be used alone. Alternatively, a fluorescent molecule (energy receiving protein) may be used in combination with a self-luminescent molecule (energy generating protein) such as luciferase. In this case, both molecules are preferably linked to each other with an appropriate linker interposed between them.

As the biological-component binding domain to be used in a probe, a binding domain of a protease or a collagen binding domain of an in-vivo protein such as fibronectin may be mentioned. The specific examples of the former one include a collagen binding domain that Clostridium-derived collagenase has, such as collagen binding domains of Clostridium histolyticum-derived collagenase G and collagenase H.

Note that the collagen binding domain to be used in a probe may be a part of the domain (partial sequence) as long as the object and effect of the present invention can be attained. Such a part of the collagen binding domain is included in the term of "collagen binding domain".

The amino acid sequences of collagen binding domains of Clostridium histolyticum-derived collagenase G and collagenase H, which are specific examples of the substrate binding domain to be used in the present invention, are described in SEQ ID NO: 1 and SEQ ID NO: 2.

When a visualization molecule is a protein, a biological-component binding domain can be fused with the visualization molecule (protein) and used as a fusion protein.

In a probe, the sequence of a biological-component binding domain is repeated 1 to 100 times, and preferably 1 to 20 times.

In the analysis method of the present invention, two or more probes may be separately or simultaneously applied to a biological tissue. Furthermore, the binding amounts of individual probes may be separately or simultaneously measured. Preferably, two or more probes are labeled with different visualization molecules and simultaneously applied, and the binding amounts of them are simultaneously measured.

The present invention also provides a method for separating cells or cell populations from a biological tissue by the analysis method of the present invention.

The separation method of the present invention is characterized by analyzing a biological tissue by the above analysis method, determining the quantitative ratio of enzymes (enzymes from which the substrate binding domains contained in the probes are derived) based on the analysis results, and applying the enzymes in the quantitative ratio to the biological tissue, thereby separating target cells or cell populations.

[0029] The present invention further provides a probe set for analyzing a biological tissue, constituted of the aforementioned two or more probes, and a biological tissues separation kit containing, e.g., the probe set and enzymes.

Advantageous Effects of Invention Each of the probes to be used in the present invention contains a biological-component binding domain.

It specifically binds to binding sites of a predetermined enzyme in a biological tissue and emits fluorescence or luminescence. Based on observation of fluorescence or luminescence emitted from each of the probes corresponding to the predetermined enzyme, affinity of the enzyme for a biological tissue and actions of enzyme can be analyzed. To describe more specifically, probes are incubated together with a small amount of frozen pieces of a target tissue to stain them. The binding states of the probes are analyzed based on the color tone and fluorescent intensity on the tissue pieces. Based on the analysis, the quantitative ratio and action time of the enzymes suitable for degradation can be computationally obtained.

More specifically, according to the present invention, the type and amount of protease to be used can be accurately and easily found based on the binding properties of probes to the extracellular matrix or of the protein of a tissue to be separated. In this manner, target cells and cell populations can be quickly and easily isolated from a biological tissue while maintaining a high activity. For example, in the case of transplanting pancreatic islets, an enzymatic treatment can be made in accordance with the state of a target pancreatic tissue, and indexing of the state of a pancreatic tissue for attaining separation of high- quality pancreatic islets constantly in a large amount can be established.

Brief Description of Drawings [Figure 1] Figure 1 shows constitutions of (A) ColGCBD and (B) ColHCBD.

[Figure 2] Figure 2 shows a schematic view of the sequence of tdTomatoColH CBD.

[Figure 3] Figure 3 shows SDS-PAGE of Ni-NTA elution fraction.

[Figure 4] Figure 4 shows SDS-PAGE of anionic exchange chromatography elution fraction.

[Figure 5] Figure 5 shows excitation and fluorescent spectra of tdTomatoColH CBD.

[Figure 6] Figure 6 shows schematic views of the primers used for amplification of a luciferase gene and a CBD gene.

[Figure 7] Figure 7 shows luciferase-collagen binding domain fusion protein expression plasmids.

[Figure 8] Figure 8 shows detection of expression of probe protein (SDS-PAGE).

[Figure 9] Figure 9 shows the detection of luciferase luminescence (luminescent spectrum and a change of light intensity at 550 nm with time).

[Figure 10] Figure 10 shows SDS-PAGE of Ni-NTA agarose column elution fraction (M: Protein marker, S: PGV_ColH CBD crude, FT: flow-through fraction, 50 to 500 mM: imidazole elution fraction at individual concentrations (the first 200-mM imidazole elution fraction was used as purified enzyme solution)).

[Figure 11] Figure 11 shows a confirmation experiment for binding to a pancreatic tissue piece.

[Figure 12] Figure 12 shows the results of component analysis of a swine pancreatic piece by EGFP-ColGCBD probe.

[Figure 13] Figure 13 shows a fluorescent brightness ratio of GFP ColG CBD and tdTomato ColH CBD in a rat tissue piece (H/G: fluorescent brightness ratio of tdTomato ColH CBD relative to GFP ColG CBD, W: Wister- Furth rat, L: Lewis rat, SD: SD rat).

[Figure 14] Figure 14 shows the effect of difference in the composition ratio of collagenases G and H on the quantity and quality of pancreatic islets (A: yield, B: ATP/DNA, C: In-vitro carbohydrate tolerance test, D: Insulin/DNA).

The specification incorporates the content described in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-058080 based on which the priority right of the present application is claimed.

Description of Embodiments

[0034] 1. Analysis method for biological tissue In the present invention, two or more probes respectively containing biological-component binding domains through which two or more proteins bind to a predetermined biological component are used to analyze the binding amounts (affinity) of a biological tissue to the probes. The results are applied to degradation of the biological tissue and isolation of cells and cell populations.

[0035] Herein, the "two or more proteins binding to a predetermined specific biological component" refers to intercellular matrix proteins such as fibronectin and integrin, and enzymes such as a protease. These proteins each have a site (domain) specifically binding to the corresponding ligand and substrate. The site will be described as "a biological-component binding domain" in the specification.

In isolating cells and cell populations from a biological tissue, in most cases, a plurality of enzymes are usually used. However, the action of each enzyme (sensitivity of a tissue) significantly varies depending upon the site and state of the biological tissue to which the enzyme is to be applied. Thus, to quickly and efficiently separate target cells and cell populations while maintaining a high biological activity, an optimal consumption, use ratio, action time of the enzyme and others are desirably determined in advance. The probes of the present invention allow for easily determination of such an optimal consumption, use ratio and action time of the enzyme.

The target "biological tissue" to be used in the present invention is not particularly limited, and includes a wide variety of tissues of multicellular animals (e.g., mammals, birds, reptiles and fish) such as liver, pancreas, kidney, tooth lap tissue, liver, pancreas, skin, cartilage, bone and nervous tissue.

Furthermore, not only tissues isolated from a living body but also tissues artificially constructed, such as ES cell tissue and a tissue of fibroblast cells serving as a material for iPS cells are also included.

The present invention employs "two or more probes" respectively containing biological-component binding domains (for example, different enzyme-substrate binding sites) through which two or more proteins bind to a predetermined biological component. The biological- component binding domains to be used in the probes are appropriately selected depending upon the purpose of analysis.

[0039] For example, in analyzing a biological tissue prior to enzymatic digestion (degradation) of the biological tissue and separation of cells and cell populations, probes comprising a substrate binding domain of the protease to be used for such enzymatic digestion and separation of cells is used.

Examples of protease to be used in degradation of a tissue include collagenase, trypsin, chymotrypsin, dispase, elastase, papain, pronase, thermolysin, subtilisin, bromelain, phytin and thermitase. Examples of collagenase particularly include Clostridium histolyticum-derived collagenase G and collagenase H, actinomyces-derived collagenase and Clostridium perfringens-derived collagenase. Most of the primary structures of substrate binding sites of these enzymes have already been analyzed. Using the structural information, those skilled in the art can design a probe.

The probe bound to a biological tissue is visualized by a molecular imaging technique known in the art. Owing to visualization, the binding amount of probe can be easily determined without damaging the tissue. The probe is labeled by an appropriate visualization molecule such as a fluorescent molecule, a luminescent molecule and a radioisotope such as a positron nuclide. How to design a probe will be more specifically described in the following section.

Two or more probes may be separately or simultaneously applied to a biological tissue.

Furthermore, the binding amounts of probes may be separately or simultaneously measured. However, in view of quick and simple measurement, it is preferable that two or more probes be labeled with different visualization molecules and simultaneously applied to a biological tissue, and that the binding amounts of them be simultaneously measured.

In the present invention, the aforementioned two or more probes are applied to a biological tissue isolated, and the binding amounts (affinity) of the probes to the biological tissue are analyzed. The results are applied to degradation of a biological tissue and isolation of cells and cell populations. To describe more specifically, the binding amount ratio of two or more probes to a biological tissue is obtained by the analysis.

Based on the binding amount ratio, the optimal quantitative ratio of enzymes to be used for degradation of the biological tissue and isolation of cells and cell populations is determined. The binding ratio of the probes has a correlation with the quantitative ratio of enzymes. The higher the binding ratio is, the higher the optimal quantitative ratio of enzymes is. However, since enzymes mutually differ in number of units, titer (efficacy unit/mg), optimal temperature, optimal pH and action time, the quantitative ratio of the enzymes to be used is finally determined under comprehensive consideration of these factors and the binding ratio of probes. If the binding ratio of probes can be obtained by the present invention, such an optimal quantitative ratio can be determined by those skilled in the art.

[0044] 2. Probe set for analysis of biological tissue The probe set of the present invention is constituted of two or more probes. Each of the probes contains a different biological-component binding domain (one of the biological-component binding domains of two or more proteins binding to a predetermined biological component) and a visualization molecule selected from a fluorescent molecule, a luminescent molecule and a radioisotope including a positron nuclide.

The substrate binding domain of an enzyme is appropriately selected in accordance with the purpose of analysis. In analyzing a biological tissue prior to enzymatic digestion (degradation) of a biological tissue and separation of cells and cell populations, probes comprising a substrate binding domain of a protease used in such enzymatic digestion and separation of cells is used.

Examples of such a protease include collagenase, trypsin, chymotrypsin, dispase, elastase, papain, pronase, thermolysin, subtilisin, bromelain, phytin and thermitase.

Examples of collagenase particularly include Clostridium histolyticum-derived collagenase G and collagenase H, and actinomyces-derived collagenase and Clostridium perfringens-derived collagenase. Most of the primary structures of substrate binding sites of these enzymes have already been analyzed. Using the structural information, those skilled in the art can design probes.

As examples, the amino acid sequences of Clostridium histolyticum-derived collagenase G and collagenase H are described in SEQ ID NO: 1 and SEQ ID NO: 2, respectively.

It is preferable that a probe contains 1 to 100 repeats, particularly 1 to 20 repeats of a substrate binding domain (for example, collagen binding domain) or a part thereof.

[0048] As the visualization molecule, a fluorescent molecule, a luminescent molecule and a positron nuclide to be used in molecule imaging technique can be used.

As the fluorescent molecule, a fluorescent protein such as GFP, EGFP, YFP, BFP, CFP, DsRED, tdTomato and RFP or a fluorescent marker such as Alexa350, dimethylamino coumarin, 5/6-carboxy-fluorescein, Alexa488, ATTO488, DY- 505, 5/6-carboxyfluorescein, Alexa488, Alexa532, Alexa546, Alexa555, ATTO488, ATTO532, tetramethylrhodamine, Cy3, DY-505, DY-547, Alexa635, Alexa647, ATTO600, ATTO655, DY- 632, Cy5, DY-647, Cy5.5 can be used for visualization.

As the luminescent molecule, a luminescent enzyme such as luciferase can be used. As luciferase, luciferase derived from various luminescent organisms such as Cypridina, Hoplophoridae, luminescent insects (e.g., lightning bug, Pityobiinae), luminescent earthworm, Latia, pus shiitake, Aequorea victoria (Aequorin) can be mentioned. A modified luciferase having a peak wavelength and luminescent intensity different from a wild-type luciferase is preferably used.

A fluorescent protein such as GFP requires an external light source for emitting fluorescence; however, luciferase oxidizes luciferin to emit light by itself. A technique of emitting light from GFP without an external light source by binding luciferase to GFP is also developed, and thus such a technique may be applied (WO2004/22600, WO2004/052934).

Other than these, many techniques are known with respect to visualization of a protein (WO01/46694, National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2006-518209, National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2005-525111, Japanese Patent Laid- Open No. 2008-283959). These known techniques can be used.

As the radioisotope, a positron nuclide employed in imaging using PET can be used. Examples of the positron 13 11 18 62 68 82 nuclide include O, N, C, F, Cu, Ga and Rb. A conventional tag known in the art and frequently used in a PET probe can be used.

If a protein molecule is used as a visualization molecule, a biological-component binding domain (collagen binding domain) may be fused with the visualization molecule to constitute a fusion protein. A method for producing a fusion protein is known in the art (as described above, N Nishi, et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA.; 95(12):7018-7023 (1998), Tuan et al., Connective Tissue Research, 34(1), 1-9 (1996), Han et al., Protein Expression and Purification 11, 169-178). Thus, those skilled in the art can easily produce a fusion protein in accordance with these conventional techniques. 3. Method for separating cells or cell populations from biological tissue The present invention also provides a method for efficiently separating desired cells or cell populations from a biological tissue, by analyzing the biological tissue by use of the aforementioned analysis method and determining the quantitative ratio and action time of enzymes to be used, based on the analysis results.

Since the affinity of the tissue for an enzyme is suggested by the binding amount of probe, the quantitative ratio and action time of enzymes in accordance with the purpose can be predicted based on the affinity for each of the enzymes. 4. Biological tissue separation kit The present invention also provides a kit to be used in the aforementioned method for separating cells or cell populations from a biological tissue.

The kit of the present invention consists of one or two or more elements selected from reagents and tools used in the method for separating a biological tissue of the present invention, such as the probe set of the present invention, an enzyme used in separating a biological tissue and having a substrate binding domain used as a constitution element of a probe, and a buffer, as constitutional elements.

Examples Now, the present invention will be more specifically described by way of Examples below; however, the present invention is not limited to these Examples.

[0058] [Example 1] Preparation of probe by use of EGFP [Preparation EGFP-ColGCBD probe] (1) Method for constructing EGFP-ColGCBD First, preparation of a probe (EGFP-ColGCBD) for Clostridium histolyticum-derived collagenase G labeled with EGFP will be described.

First, based on the FLAG sequence, two oligo DNAs: '-TCGACGATTATAAAGATGATGATGATAAAT-3' (SEQ ID NO: 3) and 5'-CTAGATTTATCATCATCATCTTTATAATCG-3' (SEQ ID NO: 4) were synthesized. Each of the oligo DNAs was dissolved in TE so as to obtain a concentration of 100 mM. Then, 10 ml of oligo DNA, 3 ml of 10 · T4 polynucleotide kinase buffer (manufactured by Nippon Gene), 0.3 ml of 0.1 M ATP, 2 ml of T4 polynucleotide kinase (20U, Nippon Gene) and 14.7 ml of H O were mixed and kept at 37C for one hour.

An aliquot (10 ml) was taken from each of the reaction solutions and the aliquots were mixed. The solution mixture was maintained at 100C for 5 minutes and directly cooled gradually to room temperature. This was designated as insert solution 1.

[0060] To 10 ml of pCold2 (TAKARA Bio), 10 ml of 10 · Tango buffer (manufactured by Fermentas), 1 ml of SalI (Fermentas), 1 ml of XbaI (Fermentas) and 28 ml of H O were added, and a reaction was carried out at 37C for 5 hours. After completion of the reaction, to the reaction solution, 150 ml of TE was added; further 250 ml of a phenolic/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol (25:24:1) solution was added and sufficiently stirred. Thereafter, the mixture was centrifuged at room temperature for 5 minutes and at 16,000 g, and the supernatant was collected. To the supernatant collected, 20 ml of a 3M sodium acetate solution was added, and 450 ml of cold ethanol was added.

The mixture was allowed to stand still on ice for 5 minutes, and then centrifuged at 16,000 g and at 4C for 5 minutes to collect a precipitation.

The precipitation was washed with 70% cold ethanol, and then dissolved in 40 ml of H O. To this, 5 ml of 10 · BAP buffer (manufactured by TOYOBO CO. LTD.) and 5 ml of bacterial alkaline phosphatase (TOYOBO) were added.

Reaction was carried out at 65C for one hour. The whole amount of reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose electrophoresis. After completion of the electrophoresis, staining with an ethidium bromide solution was performed.

After the position of a band was checked, the agarose gel was cut out. Recovery from the agarose gel was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 40 ml of EB in accordance with the accompanying protocol.

The eluate thus obtained was designated as vector solution 1. Vector solution 1 (9 ml), 1 ml of insert solution 1 and 10 ml of Ligation convenience solution (Nippon gene) were mixed and kept at 16C for 30 minutes.

Escherichia coli DH5a was transformed with this solution.

The Escherichia coli thus transformed was inoculated in 2 ml of LB medium sterilized by an autoclave and containing ampicillin, which was sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.22 mm so as to obtain a final concentration of 100 mg/ml, cultured at 37C overnight, and then centrifuged at 10,000 g for one minute to collect bacterial cells.

From the bacterial cells thus collected, plasmids were recovered by use of the mini plus plasmid DNA extraction kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 100 ml of EB. To 10 ml of an aliquot taken from the eluate, 2 ml of 10 · Tango buffer, 1 ml of XbaI and 7 ml of H O were added and maintained at 37C for 3 hours. The reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis, and a single band emerged in the vicinity of 4 kbp was cut out. Recovery was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 50 ml of EB. To 10 ml of the eluate, 10 ml of Ligation convenience solution was added and maintained at 16C for 30 minutes.

Using the solution, Escherichia coli DH5a was transformed again. The Escherichia coli thus transformed was inoculated in 2 ml of LB medium sterilized by an autoclave and containing ampicillin, which was sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.22 mm so as to obtain a final concentration of 100 mg/ml, cultured at 37C overnight, and then centrifuged at 10,000 g for one minute to collect bacterial cells. From the bacterial cells thus collected, plasmids were recovered by use of the mini plus plasmid DNA extraction kit manufactured by Viogene.

Elution was performed with 100 ml of EB. To 10 ml of an aliquot taken from the eluate, 3 ml of 10 · K buffer (TAKARA Bio), 1 ml of BamHI (TAKARA Bio), 1 ml of EcoRI (TAKARA Bio) and 15 ml of H O were added and reacted at 37C overnight. After completion of the reaction, extraction was performed with the equal amount of phenol/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol. To the obtained upper layer, 3 ml of 3M sodium acetate was added, and 70 ml of cold ethanol was added. The mixture was allowed to stand still on ice for 5 minutes, and then centrifuged at 16,000 g and at 4C for 5 minutes to collect a precipitation. The precipitation was washed with 70% cold ethanol, and then dissolved in 40 ml of H O. To this, 5 ml of 10 · BAP buffer (TOYOBO) and 5 ml of bacterial alkaline phosphatase (TOYOBO) were added. A reaction was performed at 65C for one hour. The whole amount of reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose electrophoresis with TAE buffer, and staining with an ethidium bromide solution was performed. After the position of a band was checked, the agarose gel was cut out. Recovery from the agarose gel was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene.

Elution was performed with 30 ml of EB in accordance with the accompanying protocol. The resultant eluate was designated as vector solution 2.

In the meantime, 0.5 ml of 100 mM 5'- AAAGAACGGATCCACAACAACACCTATAACTAAAG-3' (primer 1: SEQ ID NO: 5), and 0.5 ml of 100 mM 5'- AAGCAGAGATGAATTCTTTATTTACCCTTAACTCATAG-3' (primer 2: SEQ ID NO: 6), 1 ml of a plasmid that had already been cloned and contained the whole length of a gene encoding Clostridium histolyticum collagenase G, 8 ml of dNTP mix (TAKARA Bio), 1.0 ml of PrimeStar HS (TAKARA Bio), 20 ml of 5M betain and 49 ml of H O were mixed, and the reaction consisting of 98C, 2 min (the first step), 98C, 10 sec (the second step), 55C, 5 sec (the third step) and 72C and 90 sec (the fourth step) was performed, and a process from the second step to the fourth step was continuously repeated 35 times.

The resultant PCR fragments were purified by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene.

Elution was performed with 50 ml of EB. To the aliquot (10 ml) of the resultant eluate, 3 ml of 10 · K buffer (TAKARA Bio), 1 ml of BamHI (TAKARA Bio), 1 ml of EcoRI (TAKARA Bio) and 15 ml of H O were added, and a reaction was performed at 37C overnight. The whole amount of reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose electrophoresis with TAE buffer, and stained with an ethidium bromide solution. After the position of a band was checked, the agarose gel was cut out. Recovery from the agarose gel was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 30 ml of EB in accordance with the accompanying protocol. The eluate was designated as insert solution 2.

To 5 ml of vector solution 2 and 5 ml of insert solution 2, 10 ml of Ligation convenience solution was added. The reaction was performed at 16C for 30 minutes.

After completion of the reaction, using the ligation solution, Escherichia coli DH5a was transformed. The resultant transformed strain was inoculated in 2 ml of LB medium sterilized by an autoclave and containing ampicillin, which was sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.22 mm so as to obtain a final concentration of 100 mg/ml, cultured at 37C overnight, and then centrifuged at 10,000 g for one minute to collect bacterial cells.

From the bacterial cells thus collected, plasmids were recovered by use of the mini plus plasmid DNA extraction kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 100 ml of EB. To 10 ml of an aliquot taken from the eluate, 3 ml of 10 · Tango buffer, 1 ml of SacI (Fermentas), 1 ml of KpnI (Fermentas) and 15 ml of H O were added and reacted at 37C overnight. After completion of the reaction, extraction was performed with the equal amount of phenolic/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol.

To the upper layer, 3 ml of 3 M sodium acetate was added, and 70 ml of cold ethanol was added. The mixture was allowed to stand still on ice for 5 minutes, and then centrifuged at 16,000 g and at 4C for 5 minutes to collect a precipitation. The precipitation was washed with 70% cold ethanol, and then dissolved in 40 ml of H O.

To this, 5 ml of 10 · BAP buffer (TOYOBO), and 5 ml of bacterial alkaline phosphatase (TOYOBO) were added. The reaction solution was reacted at 65C for one hour. The whole amount of reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose electrophoresis with TAE buffer, and staining with an ethidium bromide solution was performed. After the position of a band was checked, the agarose gel was cut out. Recovery from the agarose gel was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 30 ml of EB in accordance with the accompanying protocol. The eluate was designated as vector solution 3.

The gene encoding EGFP was used as a template. 5'- CGAAGGTGAGCTCATGGTGAGCAAGGGCG-3' (primer 3: SEQ ID NO: 7) and 3'-AGACTGCGGTACCGATCGATCTGAGTCCG-3' (primer 4: SEQ ID NO: 8) were used as primers. Then, 20 ml of 5 · PrimeStar buffer (TAKARA Bio), 1.0 ml of pET-EGFP, 0.5 ml of 100 mM primer 3, 0.5 ml of 100 mM primer 4, 8.0 ml of dNTP mix, 1.0 ml of PrimeStarHS, 20 ml of 5 M betain and 49 ml of H O were mixed, and subjected to the reaction consisting of 98C, 2 min (the first step), 98C, 10 sec (the second step), 55C, 5 sec (the third step) and 72C and 90 sec (the fourth step), and a process from the second step to the fourth step was continuously repeated 35 times.

The resultant PCR fragments were purified by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene.

Elution was performed with 50 ml of EB. To the aliquot (10 ml) of the resultant eluate, 3 ml of Tango buffer, 1 ml of SacI (Fermentas), 1 ml of KpnI (Fermentas) and 15 ml of H O were added, and a reaction was performed at 37C overnight. The whole amount of reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose electrophoresis with TAE buffer and stained with an ethidium bromide solution.

After the position of a band was checked, the agarose gel was cut out. Recovery from the agarose gel was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 30 ml of EB in accordance with the accompanying protocol. The eluate was designated as insert solution 3.

To 5 ml of vector solution 3 and 5 ml of insert solution 3, 10 ml of Ligation convenience solution was added. The reaction was performed at 16C for 30 minutes.

After completion of the reaction, using the ligation solution, Escherichia coli DH5a was transformed. The resultant transformed strain was inoculated in 2 ml of LB medium sterilized by an autoclave and containing ampicillin, which was sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.22 mm so as to obtain a final concentration of 100 mg/ml, cultured at 37C overnight, and then centrifuged at 10,000 g for one minute to collect bacterial cells.

From the bacterial cells thus collected, plasmids were recovered by use of the mini plus plasmid DNA extraction kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 100 ml of EB. Using the resultant eluate, Escherichia coli BLR strain (manufactured by Novagen) was transformed.

The resultant transformed strain was designated as E. coli BLR/pCold2-EGFP-ColGCBD strain. (2) Purification of EGFP-ColGCBD Culture Escherichia coli BLR strain transformed with pCold2- EGFP-ColGCBD was inoculated in 2 ml of LB medium sterilized by an autoclave and containing ampicillin, which was sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.22 mm so as to obtain a final concentration of 100 mg/ml, and cultured while shaking at 37C overnight. This was designated as a pre-culture solution. The pre-culture solution was inoculated to the same medium (170 ml) prepared in 500 ml-volume of a conical flask equipped with a baffle, so as to be an amount of 1/1000. Shaking culture was performed at 37C until OD reached about 0.6 to 1.0. To this, IPTG sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.22 mm was added so as to obtain a final concentration of 1 mM. The resultant mixture was cultured while shaking at 15C for 24 hours.

Recovery After completion of the culture, bacterial cells were collected by centrifuge at 10,000 g for 5 minutes, suspended in a 50 mM phosphate buffer (pH 8.0)(the same amount as the culture solution) containing 0.3M NaCl, and collected again by centrifuge at 10,000 g for 5 minutes.

The same operation was further repeated twice to wash the bacterial cells. The washed bacterial cells were suspended in 25 ml of the buffer, and then crushed by an ultrasonic homogenizer at a power of 200 W for one minute in ice. After completion of the crushing, the bacterial cells were centrifuged at 10,000 g for 10 minutes at 4C, and the supernatant was collected.

Purification The supernatant centrifugally obtained from the crushed bacterial cells was subjected to Cosmosil His- accept (diameter: 2.5 · 10 cm) column chromatography.

After the column was sufficiently washed with 50 mM phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) containing 0.3 M NaCl, a 50 mM phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) containing 10 mM imidazole and 0.3M NaCl was applied to the column in an equivalent amount to that of the column. Subsequently, the same buffer as above except that 20 mM imidazole was contained, the same buffer as above except that 30 mM imidazole was contained, the same buffer as above except that 40 mM imidazole was contained, the same buffer as above except that 50 mM imidazole was contained, the same buffer as above except that 100 mM imidazole was contained, and the same buffer as above except that 500 mM imidazole was contained, were applied, and the adsorbed protein was eluted. Individual elution fractions were checked by SDS-PAGE and immunoblot using an anti-His6 antibody (Santa Cruz). As a result, it was confirmed that a desired protein was contained in 20-30 mM imidazole elution fraction. This protein was designated as EGFP- ColGCBD protein. ColGCBD is shown in Figure 1 (A), and the nucleotide sequence and amino acid sequence of EGFP- ColGCBD are shown respectively in SEQ ID NOs: 9 and 10 of the sequence listing.

[Example 2] Preparation of probes by use of DsRed [Preparation of DsRed-ColHCBD probes] (1) Method for constructing DsRed-ColHCBD Next, preparation of a probe (DsRed-ColHCBD) for Clostridium histolyticum-derived collagenase H labeled with DsRed will be described.

[0074] Based on the C-myc sequence, two oligo DNAs: 5'- TCGACGAACAGAAACTGATTAGCGAAGAAGATCTGT-3' (SEQ ID NO: 11) and 5'-CTAGACAGATCTTCTTCGCTAATCAGTTTCTGTTCG-3' (SEQ ID NO: 12) were synthesized. Each of the oligo DNAs was dissolved in TE so as to obtain a concentration of 100 mM.

Then, 10 ml of oligo DNA, 3 ml of 10 · T4 polynucleotide kinase buffer (Nippon Gene), 0.3 ml of 0.1 M ATP, 2 ml of T4 polynucleotide kinase (20U, Nippon Gene) and 14.7 ml of H O were mixed, and kept at 37C for one hour. An aliquot of 10 ml was taken from each of the reaction solutions, and the aliquots were mixed. The solution mixture was maintained at 100C for 5 minutes and directly cooled gradually to room temperature. This was designated as insert solution 4.

To 10 ml of pCold2 (TAKARA Bio), 10 ml of 10 · Tango buffer (manufactured by Fermentas), 1 ml of SalI (Fermentas), 1 ml of XbaI (Fermentas) and 28 ml of H O were added, and a reaction was carried out at 37C for 5 hours. After completion of the reaction, to the reaction solution, 150 ml of TE was added; further 250 ml of a phenolic/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol (25:24:1) solution was added, and sufficiently stirred. Thereafter, the mixture was centrifuged at room temperature for 5 minutes at 16,000 g, and the supernatant was collected. To the supernatant thus collected, 20 ml of a 3M sodium acetate solution was added, and 450 ml of cold ethanol was added.

The mixture was allowed to stand still on ice for 5 minutes, and then centrifuged at 16,000 g and at 4C for minutes to collect a precipitation.

The precipitation was washed with 70% cold ethanol, and then dissolved in 40 ml of H O. To this, 5 ml of 10 · BAP buffer (manufactured by TOYOBO CO. LTD.) and 5 ml of bacterial alkaline phosphatase (TOYOBO) were added. A reaction was performed at 65C for one hour. The whole amount of reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose electrophoresis. After completion of the electrophoresis, staining with an ethidium bromide solution was performed.

After the position of a band was checked, the agarose gel was cut out. Recovery from the agarose gel was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 40 ml of EB in accordance with the accompanying protocol. The eluate thus obtained was designated as vector solution 4.

Vector solution 4 (9 ml), 1 ml of insert solution 4 and ml of Ligation convenience solution (Nippon gene) were mixed and kept at 16C for 30 minutes.

[0077] Using this solution, Escherichia coli DH5a was transformed. The Escherichia coli thus transformed was inoculated in 2 ml of LB medium sterilized by an autoclave and containing ampicillin, which was sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.22 mm so as to obtain a final concentration of 100 mg/ml, cultured at 37C overnight, and then centrifuged at 10,000 g for one minute to collect bacterial cells. From the bacterial cells thus collected, plasmids were recovered by use of the mini plus plasmid DNA extraction kit manufactured by Viogene.

Elution was performed with 100 ml of EB. To 10 ml of an aliquot taken from the eluate, 2 ml of 10 · Tango buffer, 1 ml of XbaI and 7 ml of H O were added and maintained at 37C for 3 hours. The reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis, and a single band emerged in the vicinity of 4 kbp was cut out. Recovery was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 50 ml of EB. To 10 ml of the eluate, 10 ml of Ligation convenience solution was added and maintained at 16C for minutes. Using the solution, Escherichia coli DH5a was transformed again. The Escherichia coli thus transformed was inoculated in 2 ml of LB medium sterilized by an autoclave and containing ampicillin, which was sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.22 mm so as to obtain a final concentration of 100 mg/ml, cultured at 37C overnight, and then centrifuged at 10,000 g for one minute to collect bacterial cells. From the bacterial cells thus collected, plasmids were recovered by use of the mini plus plasmid DNA extraction kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 100 ml of EB. To 10 ml of an aliquot taken from the eluate, 3 ml of 10 · K buffer (TAKARA Bio), 1 ml of BamHI (TAKARA Bio), 1 ml of EcoRI (TAKARA Bio) and 15 ml of H O were added and reacted at 37C overnight. After completion of the reaction, extraction was performed with the equal amount of phenol/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol. To the obtained upper layer, 3 ml of 3M sodium acetate was added, and 70 ml of cold ethanol was added. The mixture was allowed to stand still on ice for 5 minutes, and then centrifuged at 16,000 g and at 4C for 5 minutes to collect a precipitation. The precipitation was washed with 70% cold ethanol, and then dissolved in 40 ml of H O.

To this, 5 ml of 10 · BAP buffer (TOYOBO), and 5 ml of bacterial alkaline phosphatase (TOYOBO) were added.

Reaction was performed at 65C for one hour. The whole amount of reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose electrophoresis with TAE buffer, and staining with an ethidium bromide solution was performed. After the position of a band was checked, the agarose gel was cut out. Recovery from the agarose gel was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene.

Elution was performed with 30 ml of EB in accordance with the accompanying protocol. The resultant eluate was designated as vector solution 5.

In the meantime, 0.5 ml of 100 mM 5'- GAATCTTCAGGATCCACTACTACTGCAGAAATAAAG-3' (primer 5: SEQ ID NO: 13) and 0.5 ml of 100 mM 5'- AAGCAGAGATGAATTCTCTTCCTACTGAACCTTCTATATTAATTC-3' (primer 6: SEQ ID NO: 14), 1 ml of a plasmid, pCold2-ColH-His, which had already been cloned and contained the whole length of a gene encoding Clostridium histolyticum collagnease H, 8 ml of dNTP mix (TAKARA Bio), 1.0 ml PrimeStar HS (TAKARA Bio), 20 ml of 5M betain and 49 ml of H O were mixed, and the reaction consisting of 98C, 2 min (the first step), 98C, 10 sec (the second step), 55C, 5 sec (the third step) and 72C and 90 sec (the fourth step) was performed, and a process from the second step to the fourth step was continuously repeated 35 times.

The resultant PCR fragments were purified by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene.

Elution was performed with 50 ml of EB. To the aliquot (10 ml) of the resultant eluate, 3 ml of 10 · K buffer (TAKARA Bio), 1 ml of BamHI (TAKARA Bio), 1 ml of EcoRI (TAKARA Bio) and 15 ml of H O were added, and a reaction was performed at 37C overnight. The whole amount of reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose electrophoresis with TAE buffer, and stained with an ethidium bromide solution. After the position of a band was checked, the agarose gel was cut out. Recovery from the agarose gel was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 30 ml of EB in accordance with the accompanying protocol. The eluate was designated as insert solution 5.

To 5 ml of vector solution 5 and 5 ml of insert solution 5, 10 ml of Ligation convenience solution was added. The reaction was performed at 16C for 30 minutes.

After completion of the reaction, Escherichia coli DH5a was transformed by use of the ligation solution. The resultant transformed strain was inoculated in 2 ml of LB medium sterilized by an autoclave and containing ampicillin, which was sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.22 mm so as to obtain a final concentration of 100 mg/ml, cultured at 37C overnight, and then centrifuged at 10,000 g for one minute to collect bacterial cells.

From the bacterial cells thus collected, plasmids were recovered by use of the mini plus plasmid DNA extraction kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 100 ml of EB. To 10 ml of an aliquot taken from this, 3 ml of 10 · Tango buffer, 1 ml of SacI (Fermentas), 1 ml of KpnI (Fermentas) and 15 ml of H O were added and reacted at 37C overnight. After completion of the reaction, extraction was performed with the equal amount of phenolic/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol. To the obtained upper layer, 3 ml of 3 M sodium acetate was added, and 70 ml of cold ethanol was added. The mixture was allowed to stand still on ice for 5 minutes, and then centrifuged at 16,000 g and at 4C for 5 minutes to collect a precipitation. The precipitation was washed with 70% cold ethanol, and then dissolved in 40 ml of H O. To this, 5 ml of 10 · BAP buffer (manufactured by TOYOBO CO., LTD.) and 5 ml of bacterial alkaline phosphatase (TOYOBO) were added. Reaction was performed at 65C for one hour.

The whole amount of reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose electrophoresis with TAE buffer, and staining with an ethidium bromide solution was performed.

After the position of a band was checked, the agarose gel was cut out. Recovery from the agarose gel was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 30 ml of EB in accordance with the accompanying protocol. The eluate was designated as vector solution 6.

As a template, pDsRed-monomer (manufactured by Clontech) was used. 5'-GTACCGGTCGAGCTCATGGACAACACCGAGG- 3' (primer 7: SEQ ID NO: 15) and 3'- GTCGCGGCCGGTACCCTGGGAGCCGGAGTGGC-3' (primer 8: SEQ ID NO: 16) were used as primers. Then, 20 ml of 5 · PrimeStar buffer (TAKARA Bio), 1.0 ml of pDsRed-monomer (manufactured by Clontech), 0.5 ml of 100 mM primer 7, 0.5 ml of 100 mM primer 8, 8.0 ml of dNTP mix, 1.0 ml of PrimeStar HS, 20 ml of 5 M betain and 49 ml of H O were mixed, and subjected to the reaction consisting of 98C, 2 min (the first step), 98C, 10 sec (the second step), 55C, 5 sec (the third step) and 72C and 90 sec (the fourth step) and a process from the second step to the fourth step was continuously repeated 35 times.

The resultant PCR fragments were purified by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene.

Elution was performed with 50 ml of EB. To the aliquot (10 ml) of the resultant eluate, 3 ml of Tango buffer, 1 ml of SacI (Fermentas), 1 ml of KpnI (Fermentas) and 15 ml of H O were added, and a reaction was performed at 37C overnight. The whole amount of reaction solution was subjected to 0.8% agarose electrophoresis with TAE buffer, and stained with an ethidium bromide solution.

After the position of a band was checked, the agarose gel was cut out. Recovery from the agarose gel was performed by use of the gel/PCR purification kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 30 ml of EB in accordance with the accompanying protocol. The eluate was designated as insert solution 6.

To 5 ml of vector solution 6 and 5 ml of insert solution 6, 10 ml of Ligation convenience solution was added. The reaction was performed at 16C for 30 minutes.

After completion of the reaction, Escherichia coli DH5a was transformed by use of the ligation solution. The resultant transformed strain was inoculated in 2 ml of LB medium sterilized by an autoclave and containing ampicillin, which was sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.22 mm so as to obtain a final concentration of 100 mg/ml, cultured at 37C overnight, and then centrifuged at 10,000 g for one minute to collect bacterial cells.

From the bacterial cells thus collected, plasmids were recovered by use of the mini plus plasmid DNA extraction kit manufactured by Viogene. Elution was performed with 100 ml of EB. Using the resultant eluate, Escherichia coli BLR (DE3) pLys strain (manufactured by Novagen) was transformed. The resultant transformed strain was designated as E. coli BLR/pCold2-DsRed-ColHCBD strain. (2) Purification of DsRed-ColHCBD Culture Escherichia coli BLR strain transformed with pCold2- DsRed-ColHCBD was inoculated in 2 ml of LB medium sterilized by an autoclave and containing ampicillin, which was sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.25 mm so as to obtain a final concentration of 100 mg/ml, and cultured while shaking at 37C overnight. This was designated as a pre-culture solution. The pre-culture solution was inoculated to the same medium (170 ml) prepared in 500 ml-volume of a conical flask equipped with a baffle so as to be an amount of 1/1000. Shaking culture was performed at 37C until OD reached about 0.6 to 1.0. To this, IPTG sterilized by a sterilized filter of 0.25 mm was added so as to obtain a final concentration of 1 mM. The resultant mixture was cultured while shaking at 15C for 24 hours.

Recovery After completion of the culture, bacterial cells were collected by centrifuge at 10,000 g for 5 minutes, suspended in a 50 mM phosphate buffer(pH 8.0) (the same amount as the culture solution) containing 0.3M NaCl, and collected again by centrifuge at 10,000 g for 5 minutes.

The same operation was repeated further twice to wash the bacterial cells. The washed bacterial cells were suspended in 25 ml of the buffer, and then crushed by an ultrasonic homogenizer at a power of 200 W for one minute in ice. After completion of the crushing, the bacterial cells were centrifuged at 10,000 g for 10 minutes at 4C, and the supernatant was collected.

Purification The supernatant centrifugally obtained from the crushed bacterial cells was subjected to Cosmosil His- accept (diameter: 2.5 · 10 cm) column chromatography.

After the column was sufficiently washed with 50 mM phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) containing 0.3 M NaCl, a 50 mM phosphate buffer(pH 8.0) containing 10 mM imidazole and 0.3M NaCl was applied to the column in an equivalent amount to that of the column. Subsequently, the same buffer as above except that 20 mM imidazole was contained, the same buffer as above except that 30 mM imidazole was contained, the same buffer as above except that 40 mM imidazole was contained, the same buffer as above except that 50 mM imidazole was contained, the same buffer as above except that 100 mM imidazole was contained, and the same buffer as above except that 500 mM imidazole was contained, were applied, and the adsorbed protein was eluted. Individual elution fractions were checked by SDS-PAGE and immunoblot using an anti-His6 antibody (Santa Cruz). As a result, it was confirmed that a desired protein was contained in 20-30 mM imidazole elution fraction. This protein was designated as DsRed- ColHCBD protein. ColHCBD is shown in Figure 1 (B), and the nucleotide sequence and amino acid sequence of DsRed- ColHCBD are shown respectively in SEQ ID NOs: 17 and 18 of the sequence listing.

[Example 3] Preparation of probes by use of tdTomato (1) Preparation of tdTomatoColH CBD DNA and insertion into expression vector pColdII As template DNA of tdTomato gene, ptdTomato vector (Clontech) was used. In PCR for DNA amplification, as an N-terminal primer, sequence 34 base (TomatoF) containing an Nde I recognition site positioned upstream of tdTomato was used. As a C-terminal primer, a complementary sequence to 34 bp (TomatoR) having a BamHI recognition site in place of a termination codon positioned downstream of tdTomato was used. The sequences of individual primers are shown below.

Primer sequence: TomatoF: 5'-CCGGTCGCCcatATGGTGAGCAAGGGCGAGGAGG-3' (SEQ ID NO: 19) TomatoR: 5'-AGAGTCGCGGCGGATCCCTTGTACAGCTCGTCCA-3' (SEQ ID NO: 20) Subsequently, pCold II having an insert of DsRed- ColH CBD DNA was treated with restriction enzymes, BamH I and Xba I, to obtain a Col H CBD DNA fragment of about 1000 bp.

[0089] tdTomato DNA of about 1500 bp prepared by PCR was treated with Nde I and BamHI and inserted together with ColH CBD DNA into expression vector pCold II treated with Nde I, Xba I. Colony PCR and sequence data analysis were performed to confirm that a plasmid is constructed as designed. Note that DNA sequence analysis was asked to Operon Biotechnologies. When tdTomatoColH CBD DNA was inserted into pCold II, it was expressed as a protein having a His-tag sequence at the N-terminal (Figure 2).

The residues of designed tdTomatoColH CBD including these amino acid sequences becomes 726 (molecule amount 82 k). (2) Preparation of expression bacteria and induction of protein expression Escherichia coli BLR was transformed with the tdTomatoColH CBD expression plasmid constructed in the aforementioned method. A general heat shock method was used for transformation. The transformed Escherichia coli BLR was spread on an LB plate containing 100 mg/ml ampicillin (Amp) and cultured at 37C overnight. The grown colonies were subcultured onto an LB/Amp liquid medium and incubated at 37C until OD reached 0.5-0.7.

The culture solution was cooled on ice for 30 minutes, and then isopropyl-b-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) was added so as to obtain a concentration of 0.1 mM. Culture was continued at 15C for 24 hours to induce expression of a protein.

After 24 hours, the Escherichia coli culture solution was centrifuged to collect bacterial cells. The bacterial cells were washed with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) twice, and again suspended in PBS. To this, phenylmethanesulphonyl fluoride (PMSF) was added so as to obtain a concentration of 0.1 mM. The bacterial cells were crushed by ultrasonic wave while cooling on ice.

The resultant solution of crushed bacterial cells was centrifuged at 12,000 rpm for 20 minutes to separate a precipitation and a supernatant. SDS-PAGE analysis was performed to confirm that a desired protein is expressed in a soluble fraction. To Escherichia coli cultured solution, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was added up to 8% and stored at -80C in a freezer. This was used as a frozen bacterial-cell stock for expressing tdTomatoColH CBD. (3) Purification of tdTomatoColH CBD To Ni-NTA agarose column (j2.0 cm · 5.0 cm, column volume 15 ml, company: QIAGEN) equilibrated with a 300 mM NaCl/50 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 8.0), a solution prepared by diluting the soluble fraction of crushed bacterial cells three-fold with an equilibration buffer was applied. After the flow-through fraction not adsorbed to the carrier was washed off with the equilibration buffer, elution was performed with buffers containing 50 mM, 200 mM, and 500 mM imidazole. Each of the fractions eluted by the buffers different in imidazole concentration was subjected to SDS-PAGE to confirm that tdTomatoColH CBD was eluted in a 200 mM imidazole elution fraction (Figure 3). The fraction was recovered and dialyzed against 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0).

After the dialysis, the resultant solution was applied to an anionic exchange column (HiTrap DEAE FF, C.V. = 1 ml, GE Healthcare), and elution was performed with the 0-400 mM linear NaCl concentration gradient. A fraction in which the presence of tdTomatoColH CBD was confirmed by SDS-PAGE was recovered from the elution fractions (Figure 4), and concentrated by ultrafiltration using Amicon 30k (manufactured by Millipore) up to 5 mg/ml. This was used as purified tdTomatoColH CBD. (4) Measurement of fluorescent spectrum It is reported that tdTomato has the same excitation wavelength (554 nm) and fluorescent (581 nm) wavelength as those of DsRed. The excitation and fluorescent spectrum of the tdTomatoColH CBD purified enzyme solution was measured by a spectrofluorometer F-2500 (Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation) (Figure 5). From the spectrum, it was confirmed that neither a shift of a fluorescent wavelength nor quenching occur by being expressed as a fusion protein with CBD. Furthermore, it was confirmed that more intensive fluorescence is emitted compared to that using DsRed.

[Example 4] Preparation of probe using luciferase [Method for preparing PGV_Col G CBD and PGV-Col H CBD (Luciferase-Collagen binding domain fusion protein) probes] (1) Method for constructing PGV_Col G CBD 1) Preparation of DNA of Luciferase-Collagen binding domain fusion protein Insertion into expression vector pCold I As a template DNA of a Luciferase gene, the sequence of a luciferase coding region (PGV) of a PicaGene control vector (PGV_control) was used. In PCR for DNA amplification, as an N-terminal primer, a 27-base sequence (PGVctrl_Nterm) having an Nde I recognition site (CATATG) positioned upstream of PGV was used. As a C- terminal primer, a 30 bp (PGV_CF_r) sequence complementary to a BamHI recognition site (GGATCC) positioned downstream of PGV in place of a termination codon was used.

For collagen binding domains (CBD) of Collagenases (Col) G and H, a plasmid having the whole length DNA of Col G and H inserted in pCold III was used as template DNA. In PCR for DNA amplification, a 35-base (ColG_Nterm, ColH_Nterm) DNA having a BamH I recognition site added to the N-terminal of CBD was used as an N-terminal primer.

As a C-terminal primer, a sequence (ColG_CtermStrep_comp) in which a Strep-tagged amino acid sequence and an Xba I recognition site (TCTAGA) were added sequentially in this order to Col G CBD, and a complementary 49-base DNA to the sequence (ColH_CtermFLAG_comp) in which FLAG-tagged amino acid sequence and an Xba I recognition site were sequentially added in this order to Col H CBD were respectively used (Figure 6).

[0097] PGV DNA of about 1,700 bp prepared by PCR was treated with Nde I and BamHI, and CBD DNA of about 1,000 bp was treated with BamH I and Xba I, and inserted into an expression vector, pCold I that had been treated with Nde I and Xba I (Figure 7).

Colony PCR and sequence data analysis were performed to confirm that the plasmid was constructed as designed.

Note that DNA sequence analysis was asked to Operon Biotechnologies. If DNA was inserted into pCold I, it was expressed as a protein having His-tag at the N- terminal and a recognition sequence for Factor Xa. The size of the fusion protein designed including these amino acid sequences becomes 911 residues (molecule amount: 101 k) in the case of PGV Col G CBD and 883 residues (molecule amount: 98 k) in the case of PGV Col H CBD.

[0099] 2) Preparation of expression bacteria and induction of protein expression Escherichia coli Rosetta 2 (DE3) was transformed with the expression plasmid in which PGV and DNA of Col G CBD or Col H CBD were inserted. A general heat shock method was used for transformation. Expression of a Luciferase-Collagen binding domain fusion protein was induced by the transformed strain.

The transformed Escherichia coli Rosetta 2 was spread on an LB plate containing 100 g/ml of ampicillin (Amp) and 34 g/ml of chloramphenicol (Cm) and cultured at 37 C overnight. Grown colonies were subcultured onto an LB/Amp/Cm liquid medium and incubated at 37 C until OD reached 0.5-0.7. The culture solution was cooled on ice for 30 minutes, and then isopropyl- -D- thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) was added so as to obtain a concentration of 0.1 mM. Culture was continued at 15 C for 48 hours to induce expression of a protein.

[0101] After 48 hours, the Escherichia coli culture solution was centrifuged to collect bacterial cells. The bacterial cells were washed with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) twice and again suspended in PBS. To this, phenylmethanesulphonyl fluoride (PMSF) was added so as to obtain a concentration of 0.1 mM. Thereafter, the bacterial cells were crushed by ultrasonic wave under conditions: the maximum power, 2 sec interval pulse, and for 15 minutes. The resultant solution of crushed bacterial cells was centrifuged at 12,000 rpm for 20 minutes to separate a precipitation and a supernatant.

SDS-PAGE analysis was performed to confirm expression of a protein. As a result of SDS-PAGE, bands of proteins having sizes presumably corresponding to PGV_Col G CBD (101 k) and PGV_Col H CBD (98 k) were detected (Figure 8).

These bands were also detected by Western blot using an anti-His-tag antibody. To the Escherichia coli cultured solution in which a desired protein was confirmed to be expressed, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was added up to 8% and stored at -80C in a freezer. This was used as a frozen bacterial-cell stock of PGV_Col G CBD or PGV_Col H CBD. 3) Determination of luciferase activity In the supernatant obtained after bacterial cells of transformed strain were crushed, the presence of a protein having a luciferase activity was confirmed.

Luciferase used in the present invention has a luminescent spectrum having a maximum value at 550 nm.

After 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0) was mixed with the crude, a substrate solution (Tripluc Luciferase Assay Reagent, TOYOBO CO., LTD.) was added. Immediately after, luminescence at 550 nm was measured with the passage of time. The luminescence of luciferase reached maximum immediately after a substrate solution was added, and thereafter decreased. Measurement was continued until luminescence decreased and apparently reached almost a plateau. Thereafter, a luminescent spectrum was measured (Figure 9). Also when a fusion protein with CBD was expressed, the same luminescence as that of single PGV was shown. In the crude obtained immediately after crushing, intensive luminescence was observed at 550 nm.

In the case of the crude stored in a freezer at -80C, it was confirmed that luminescence gradually decreased and that inactivation was more suppressed compared to crudes stored at 4C and -20C. (2) Purification method To an Ni-NTA agarose column (diameter: 2.0 cm · 5.0 cm, column volume 15 ml, QIAGEN) equilibrated with a 300 mM NaCl/50 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 8.0), a solution, which was prepared by diluting the crude (obtained after bacterial cells were crushed) 10-fold with an equilibration buffer, was applied. After the flow-through fraction not adsorbed to the carrier was washed off with the equilibration buffer, elution was performed with buffers containing 50 mM, 200 mM, and 500 mM imidazole. Each of the fractions eluted by the buffers different in imidazole concentration was checked by SDS-PAGE. A 200 mM-imidazole elution fraction was determined as a fraction containing purified PGV_ColG CBD or PGV_ColH CBD (Figure 10).

[Example 5] Determination of binding to pancreatic tissue Swine pancreatic tissue pieces suspended in 100 ml of 50 mM Tris-HCl/5 mM CaCl (pH 7.5) were mixed with a purified enzyme solution (100 ml) and incubated at 37C for 30 minutes, and then centrifuged to separate a precipitation and a supernatant (sup.1). The resultant precipitation was suspended in a 50 mM acetic acid buffer (pH 5.0) and incubated at room temperature for 20 minutes, and then centrifuged to separate a precipitation and a supernatant (sup.2). The resultant precipitation and the supernatant were subjected to SDS-PAGE to check binding of the pancreatic tissue to tdTomatoColH CBD (Figure 11).

As a results of SDS-PAGE, a band of tdTomatoColH CBD was observed in the precipitation. From this, binding to the pancreatic tissue was confirmed. It was found that tdTomatoColH CBD bound to the pancreatic tissue was fractionated into a precipitation and tdTomatoColH CBD unbound was fractionated into sup.1. Furthermore, since no band was detected in sup.2, it was found that tdTomatoColH CBD still binds to a collagen fiber under acidic pH conditions.

[Example 6] Method for analyzing a biological tissue component using probe [Method for measuring a biological component] A method for measuring a biological component of the present invention will be described. (1) Method for measuring a biological component by EGFP-ColGCBD and DsRED-ColH From a pig died of blood removal, the pancreas was excised out and cut into pieces of 5 mm . The pancreas pieces each were embedded in the OCT compound (manufactured by Sakura Finetek Co., Ltd.) and frozen by liquid nitrogen. Thereafter, the pancreas piece was sliced into thin pieces of 8 mm in thickness by Cryostat CM 3050S (manufactured by Leica). Each of the thin pieces was attached onto the slides (manufactured by Matsunami Glass Ind., Ltd.). The prepared slide was soaked in a formalin solution (manufactured by WAKO), the concentration of which was controlled to be 10% with a phosphate buffer solution (PBS (-)) containing neither calcium ion nor magnesium ion, and incubated at room temperature for 10 minutes, and then dried for 30 minutes.

To a glass cuvette, PBS (-) was poured, and the slide was incubated in the cuvette for 5 minutes at room temperature. The prepared slide was stored in a moisture box such that the slide would not be dried. The prepared slide was soaked in an EGFP-ColGCBD solution (200 ml) and incubated at 37C for one hour. After completion of the incubation, washing was performed with PBS (-) for 5 minutes. The prepared slide was washed with PBS (-)in a washing bottle and covered with VECTORSHELD (manufactured by Vector). Thereafter, the prepared slide was observed by a fluorescent microscope BIOLEVO BZ 9000 (manufactured by KEYENCE CORPORATION), and an image was photographed. (2) Measurement results The results are shown in Figure 12. Compared to a negative control, in the tissue sample stained by EGFP- ColGCBD, the region where the tissue is present was satisfactorily stained.

[Example 7] Method for measuring tissue piece (1) Observation method A prepared slide on which the rat's pancreatic tissue piece was fixed and stored at -80C was soaked in mM CaCl /TBS at room temperature for 10 minutes and washed with Milli-Q. To block a nonspecific binding, 100 ml of 2% Myoglobin (Myb) was added dropwise to the prepared slide, which was then pre-incubated at 37C for minutes, and then washed with Milli-Q. Each of the protein (GFP control, GFP ColG CBD, tdTomato control, tdTomatoColH CBD) solutions (40 ml) and 2% Myb (40 ml) were mixed. Then, each of the mixtures was added dropwise onto the tissue pieces and incubated 37C for 30 minutes. The concentrations of the protein solutions were controlled as follows: GFP control: 10 mg/ml, GFP ColG CBD: 10 mg/ml, tdTomato control: 5 mg/ml, tdTomatoColH CBD: 5 mg/ml.

The prepared slide was soaked in 5 mM CaCl /TBS at room temperature for 10 minutes and washed with Milli-Q.

After this procedure was repeated twice, the prepared slide was observed by a fluorescent microscope BIOREVO BZ-9000 (manufactured by KEYENCE CORPORATION) at a magnification of 200·. Several regions were appropriately selected and images were photographed at an exposure time of 0.5 seconds.

Using gauging function of software attached to the microscope, a histogram of the brightness of the entire photograph was prepared. In GFP control and GFP ColG CBD, the brightness of green fluorescence alone was selected, whereas in tdTomato control and tdTomatoColH CBD, the brightness of red fluorescence alone was selected.

From the histogram, differences of average brightness value (delta average brightness) between GFP control and GFP ColG CBD, and between tdTomato control and tdTomatoColH CBD was calculated and organized for each lineage. As a value of delta average brightness thus calculated increases, the number of bonds between CBD and the tissue increases, indicating that fluorescent intensity significantly differs from the control. As a result that the delta average brightness values were compared with each other, binding of ColG CBD and ColH CBD to the pancreatic tissue differs depending upon the lineage and age in week.

[0112] (2) Method for separating rat pancreatic islet Based on "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (revised in 1996)" published by the National Institutes of Health of the United States, animal experiments were carried out. Male Lewis rats (Slc, Japan) having a body weight of 239-268 g, male SD rats (Slc, Japan) having a body weight of 255-301g and male Wistar-Furth rats (Slc, Japan) having a body weight of 197-231 g were used.

[0113] Experimental groups were set without changing the amount of Thermolysin (0.322 mg) serving as a neutral protease as follows: a group providing a recombinant-type high-purity product: Col G (5.46 mg) and Col H (2.02 mg) in a standard enzyme-amount ratio of (H/G ratio) of 3.7; a 10-fold group (Col G (4.96 mg), Col H (18.34 mg), Thermolysin (0.322 mg), (H/G ratio = 3.70)); a 1/10 fold group (Col G (5.51 mg), Col H (0.20 mg), Thermolysin (0.322 mg), (H/G ratio = 0.04)); a Col G complete-absent group, and a Col H complete-absent group. Before the pancreas was excised out, enzyme combinations solved in cold Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS) were injected through the ductus cboledochus to expand the pancreatic tissues. After 10 mL of HBSS was added, the pancreas was placed in a warm bath of 37C or less for 14 minutes to digest it. Subsequently, concentration-gradient centrifugation using Histopaque-1119 (Sigma Diagnostics, St. Louis, MO, USA) and Lymphoprep (NycomedPharma AS, Oslo, Norway) was carried out to take a layer containing pancreatic islets. The tissue obtained by the pancreatic islet separation operation was stained with diphenylthiocarbazone (Wako, Osaka, Japan) to distinguish the pancreatic islets from non-pancreatic islet tissue such as an exocrine gland and an excreting duct. Each yield was measured directly under microscopic observation.

The yield of separated pancreatic islets was indicated in terms of islet equivalent (IEQ) (1 IEQ corresponds to the size of a pancreatic islet of 150 mm in diameter. This is defined by the international standard). (3) Experimental results 1) Measurement results of fluorescent brightness of GFP ColG CBD and tdTomatoColH CBD in tissue pieces of rats The fluorescent brightness of two probes, i.e., ColG and ColH in rats and the ratio of them are shown in Figure 13 and Table 1.

[Table 1] Fluorescent brightness Rat Probes Samplej Samplek Samplel Samplem Compartmentj 74 109 78 - Compartmentk 89 114 87 - G Compartmentl 80 127 73 - Compartmentm - 105 73 - Average value 81 109 78 - Wister Compartmentj 76 125 65 - Compartmentk 70 118 71 - H Compartmentl 68 101 80 - Compartmentm - 105 64 - Average value 71 108 70 - H/G 0.881 0.991 0.897 - Compartmentj 79 88 95 70 Compartmentk 84 97 106 77 G Compartmentl 80 79 125 71 Compartmentm - 90 104 82 Average value 81 89 108 75 Lewis Compartmentj 62 66 106 57 Compartmentk 60 64 93 58 H Compartmentl 61 57 91 60 Compartmentm - 67 76 74 Average value 61 64 87 58 H/G 0.753 0.719 0.806 0.773 Compartmentj 85 115 84 - Compartmentk 83 109 72 - G Compartmentl 87 121 72 - Compartmentm - 135 78 - Average value 85 120 77 - Compartmentj 68 77 56 - Compartmentk 71 106 55 - H Compartmentl 69 113 46 - Compartmentm - 85 61 - Average value 69 101 55 - H/G 0.816 0.842 0.714 - 2) Pancreatic islet separation results in rats In the case where the fluorescent-brightness ratio of two probes, ColG and ColH, i.e., an H/G value is 0.85 or more, the addition-amount ratio of ColH to ColG, i.e., ColH/G ratio, must be an optimal value. However, in the case where the H/G value is 0.8 or less, the ColH/G ratio does not have a significant effect. It was found that if ColG is not added, the yield of a pancreatic islet is not significantly affected. A pancreatic islet separation test was performed by changing the content ratio of ColH and ColG to be used for separation of pancreatic inlets in rats in accordance with the aforementioned numerical value. The yield of pancreatic islets in this test was measured. The results are shown in Table 2.

[Table 2] In the case of ColH/ColG = 2/10 (standard value) Yield of pancreatic islet (IEQ) Lewis SD Wistar 2772 2836 3050 3040 3104 2224 3806 2516 2927 Average value 3206 2819 2734 In the case of ColH/ColG = 1/10 Yield of pancreatic islet (IEQ) Lewis SD Wistar 2049 1855 1306 2827 2669 1174 2710 2311 1997 2748 2220 1493 2752 1747 3404 3541 Average value 2748 2368 1493 p value 0.21 0.27 0.009 Yield % 85.7 84.0 54.6 In the case of ColH/ColG = 10/1 Yield of pancreatic islet (IEQ) Lewis SD Wistar 3416 1711 2015 2282 2517 2134 2707 2652 2796 3338 2821 3233 3188 2804 2269 3488 4653 Average value 3070 2860 2489 p value 0.71 0.95 0.52 Yield % 95.8 101.5 91.0 In the case of ColH/ColG = 10/0 Yield of pancreatic islet (IEQ) Lewis SD Wistar 1671 1443 1364 1807 2350 2764 Average value 1739 1897 2064 p value 0.04 0.11 0.36 Yield % 54.2 67.3 75.5 As shown in Table 2, even in the complete absence of Col G, separation of pancreatic islets was possible in all lineages of rats. In contrast, in the complete absence of Col H, the pancreas was not digested at all in all lineages of rats. Next, the Col H/G ratio was found to have an effect on the results of the pancreatic islet separation. In the case where the H/G ratio was set at 1/10, the yield of separated pancreatic islets significantly decreases only in the Wistar group (54.6% of the reference ratio, p = 0.009). Furthermore, also in the complete absence of Col G, a sufficient yield of separated pancreatic islets was obtained in the order of Wistar (75.5%), SD (67.3%), and Lewis (54.2%). The expression of a substrate requiring Col H had a tendency of Wistar > SD > Lewis.

As described above, it was demonstrated that if the optimal use-amount ratio of ColH and ColG was calculated to optimize ColG and ColH use amounts, pancreatic islets can be separated in high yield.

[Reference Example] Effect of the collagenase ratio (ColH/ColG) on separation of pancreatic islets Separation of pancreatic islets was performed by changing the collagenase ratio (ColH/ColG) of two collagenases used in separation of pancreatic islets of rats to be 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4. As a result, in ATP/DNA, in-vitro carbohydrate tolerance test and Insulin/DNA experiment (which show yield and quality), it was confirmed that high-quality pancreatic islets can be separated in high yield in the range of collagenase ratio from 0.1 to 0.2.

The results are shown in Figure 14. Figure 14A shows yield. Figure 14B shows ATP/DNA, which is a corrected value of energy charge (ATP) by the size (DNA) of the pancreatic islet. The In-vitro carbohydrate tolerance test of Figure 14C shows insulin secretion ability of pancreatic islets in response to glucose, and represents an extra action of pancreatic islets.

Insulin/DNA shown in Figure 14D is a corrected value of insulin amount by the size (DNA) of the pancreatic islet.

If a reagent or the like is toxic to pancreatic islets, degranulation of pancreatic islets often occurs.

Therefore, this is positioned as a kind of toxicity test for pancreatic islets.

[0122] It has been reported that as the enzyme for separating pancreatic islets, two types of collagenases (ColG and ColH) produced by Clostridium histolyticum and a neutral metal protease are suitable (Diabetes: 46:1120:1997). The above results teach that the combination ratio of two types of collagenases (ColG and ColH) is an important factor for determining the yield and quality of pancreatic islet separation.

The optimal combination ratio of collagenases varies depending upon the animal other than a rat such as a pig and a human even if individuals belong to the same species, and is thus a factor decreasing a success rate in isolation of pancreatic islets. Therefore, if the optimal combination ratio of collagenases to be used is determined by using the probes of the present invention before pancreatic islets are separated, it is possible to calculate the use amounts of collagenases to be employed and carry out pancreatic islet separation in an optimal combination ratio, with the result that high quality pancreatic islets can be obtained in high yield.

Industrial Applicability According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately and easily determine the type and amount of protease to be used from the protein composition of the extracellular matrix or organ to be separated, and isolate desired cells and the like while maintaining high activity. Therefore, the present invention is useful in a wide variety of uses in the field of therapy, diagnosis and examination including organ transplantation such as pancreatic islet transplantation, regenerative medicine by cell transplantation and establishment of cell strains.

All publications, patents and patent applications cited in the specification are incorporated in their entirety as a reference.

Sequence Listing Free Text SEQ ID NO: 3: Oligo DNA SEQ ID NO: 4: Oligo DNA SEQ ID NO: 5: Forward primer for ColGCBD (primer 1) SEQ ID NO: 6: Reverse primer for ColGCBD (primer 2) SEQ ID NO: 7: Forward primer for EGFP (primer 3) SEQ ID NO: 8: Reverse primer for EGFP (primer 4) SEQ ID NO: 9: EGFP-ColGCBD SEQ ID NO: 10: EGFP-ColGCBD SEQ ID NO: 11: Oligo DNA SEQ ID NO: 12: Oligo DNA SEQ ID NO: 13: Forward primer for ColHCBD (primer 5) SEQ ID NO: 14: Reverse primer for ColHCBD (primer 6) SEQ ID NO: 15: Forward primer for DsRed (primer 7) SEQ ID NO: 16: Reverse primer for DsRed (primer 8) SEQ ID NO: 17: DsRed-ColHCBD SEQ ID NO: 18: DsRed-ColHCBD SEQ ID NO: 19: Forward primer for amplification of tdTomatogene (TomatoF) SEQ ID NO: 20: Reverse primer for amplification of tdTomatogene (TomatoR)

Claims (17)

Claims 1.

1. A method for analyzing a biological tissue, comprising applying two or more probes respectively 5 containing collagen binding domains of two or more proteases to an isolated biological tissue, and analyzing binding amounts of the probes to the biological tissue.

2. The method according to Claim 1, wherein each of the 10 probes is labeled with a visualization molecule selected from fluorescent molecules, luminescent molecules and radioisotopes including a positron nuclide.

3. The method according to Claim 2, wherein the 15 visualization molecule is a fluorescent molecule selected from the group consisting of GFP, EGFP, YFP, BFP, CFP, DsRED, tdTomato and RFP and/or a luciferase protein.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein each 20 of the collagen binding domains and the visualization molecule form a fusion protein.

5. The method according to any one of Claims 1 to 4, comprising: applying the two or more probes separately or 25 simultaneously to a biological tissue, and measuring binding amounts of the probes separately or simultaneously.

6. The method according to any one of Claims 1 to 5, comprising: applying the two or more probes simultaneously to a biological tissue, and measuring binding amounts of the probes simultaneously.

7. A method for separating cells or cell populations from a biological tissue, comprising: analyzing the biological tissue by the method according to any one of Claims 1 to 6, determining a quantitative ratio of 10 proteases based on results of the analysis, and applying the proteases in the quantitative ratio to the biological tissue to separate the cells or the cell populations.

8. A probe set when used for analysis of a biological 15 tissue, comprising two or more probes respectively containing collagen binding domains of two or more proteases, wherein the probes are labeled with mutually different visualization molecules selected from fluorescent molecules, luminescent molecules and 20 radioisotopes including a positron nuclide.

9. The probe set according to Claim 8, wherein the visualization molecules are a fluorescent molecule(s) selected from the group consisting of GFP, EGFP, YFP, BFP, 25 CFP, DsRED, tdTomato and RFP and/or a luciferase protein(s).

10. The probe set according to 9, wherein the luciferase protein has a peak wavelength and luminescent intensity different from a wild-type luciferase. 5

11. The probe set according to any one of Claims 8 to 10, wherein each of the collagen binding domains and each of the visualization molecules form a fusion protein.

12. The probe set according to any one of Claims 8 to 11, 10 wherein the collagen binding domains are collagen binding domains of collagenase selected from collagenases derived from the genus Clostridium.

13. The probe set according to Claim 12, wherein the 15 collagen binding domains are collagen binding domains of collagenase G and collagenase H derived from Clostridium histolyticum.

14. The probe set according to Claim 13, wherein each of 20 the collagen binding domains comprises an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1, an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 2 or partial sequences thereof, capable of binding to the collagenase G and collagenase H respectively.

15. The probe set according to any one of Claims 8 to 14, wherein the luciferase protein is linked to a fluorescent molecule selected from the group consisting of GFP, EGFP, YFP, BFP, CFP, DsRED, tdTomato and RFP via a linker.

16. The probe set according to any one of Claims 8 to15, 5 wherein the probes each contain 1 to 20 repeats of a collagen binding domain.

17. A kit when used for biological tissue separation comprising the probe set according to any one of Claims 8 10 to 16 and proteases. 200 mM imidazole elution fraction Soluble fraction Insoluble fraction Precipitate A Negative control: PSB alone B EGFP-Co1GCBD Light exposure time