Collagen undergoes progressive browning with aging and diabetes characterized by yellowing, fluorescence and crosslinking, the cause of which remains unelucidated. As an initial step towards understanding the mechanism(s) of insolubilization of collagen in aging, the major fluorophores/chromophores from the insoluble fraction of human dura mater were isolated and their spectroscopic properties were characterized. High molecular weight tryptic peptides of insoluble collagen were cleaved by sequential enzymatic digestion followed by separation into high (HMW) and low molecular weight (LMW) fractions by gel filtration chromatography. LMW was further separated by paper and reverse phase chromatography (HPLC). Two fluorescent peaks, nicknamed P and M, were obtained from LMW which had UV maxima at 325 and 350 nm and excitation/fluorescence maxima at 335/385 and 360/460 nm, respectively. Fluorophore M was borohydride reducible and unstable to acid-hydrolysis, while P remained unaffected. Large quantities of fluorophore M and pyridinoline were found in the highly crosslinked HMW fraction remaining following exhaustive proteolytic digestion. Fluorophore P and M were the major fluorophores recovered from the tryptic digest of insoluble dura mater. Fluorescence spectra of M suggest an iminopropene type of configuration which could result from nonenzymatic browning of collagen with, e.g., glucose or malonyldialdehyde, as a result of lipid peroxidation. Spectroscopic and chemical properties of fluorophore P were reminiscent but not identical with those of pyridinium crosslinks. Structure elucidation of these fluorophores is expected to provide important insight into the aging processes of the extracellular matrix.