BACKGROUND: Various types of collagen affect differentiation and expression of chondrocytes in the process of tissue engineered culture for cartilage. The reliability of cartilage tissue engineering is determined by resource, structure and property of collagen.OBJECTIVE: To characterizing the structure of collagen type Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ, to clarify the structural characteristics of collagen for cartilage tissue repairing and provide guidance for choosing cartilage tissue engineering scaffolds. METHODS: The type Ⅰ and Ⅲ collagen was obtained from neonatal calf skins, and type Ⅱ collagen was obtained from porcine articular cartilage. The differences of structures of collagen type Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ were analyzed and compared by FTIR, DSC, SDS-PAGE and picrosirius-red staining.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The neonatal calf collagen type Ⅰ,Ⅱ and porcine collagen type Ⅱ had the similar functional group. The thermal denaturation temperature of the three type collagen was 104.2 ℃, 99.7 ℃ and 92.5 ℃. SDS-PAGE analysis showed the collagen type Ⅲ percentage in collagen type Ⅰ was (11.29±0.91)%. Picrosirius-red staining exhibited that the collagen type Ⅰ was comprised red and orange raw fibers, with strongly birefringent. Collagen type Ⅲ was lax and thin, greenish fibers, but collagen type Ⅱ was red, loosely cancellated fibers. The functional groups and important characteristics of the three of collagen are similar. However, there are some differences in advanced structure. To analyze the relationships of collagen type Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ is important to choose and prepare scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering.