OBJECTIVE: To build the trestle of tissue engineering for skin with the collagen. METHODS: The collagen was obtained from the baby cattle hide pretreated by Na2S and elastinase and Protease M, then the collagen was dissolved in 0.5 mol/L acetic acid solution. The collagen was treated with Protease N to minimize its immunogenicity. The resulting collagen could be used to build the trestle of tissue engineering for skin because of good biocompatibility. The collagen molecular weight and structure were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. The bioactivity of trestle was tested in the experiment of the mice wound healing and the cell implantation. RESULTS: The SDS-PAGE result of the collagen treated by Protease M showed the typical spectrum of type I collagen. The built trestle was a collagen sponge matrix in which micropore size was 50-200 microns. It could accelerate wound healing and the implanted fibroblasts could proliferate well. CONCLUSION: The collagen treated by Protease N can get good biocompatibilily and is suitable for building the trestles of tissue engineering for skin with good bioactivity.