Abstract:The quality and physicochemical properties of pretreated sea cucumber in 60 days at 4 ℃ were studied. The soluble collagen content, hardness and chewiness, protein degradation, cathepsin-L and caspase-3 activity, structural protein expression and free radical production of sea cucumber were analyzed regularly. The results showed that with the prolongation of low temperature treatment time, the indexes of the early stage were not significantly changed, and the soluble collagen content increased significantly from the 10th day; the hardness and chewiness decreased sharply at 15-25 d. The results of SDS-PAGE showed that the high molecular weight protein began to decrease on the 15th day, and the actin disappeared after 30 days. The activity of cathepsin-L increased significantly at 20 days, and the activity of caspase-3 reached the maximum at 25 days. After 30 days, the β-actin protein signal was significantly attenuated. The results of ESR showed that the ROS signal intensity increased first and then decreased with time. This study provided a theoretical basis for the storage and preservation of sea cucumber.