Structure and properties of dermatan sulphate proteoglycans.

Introduction Fibrous connective tissues like sclera, skin, tendon and cornea have a high content of collagen but only small amounts of proteoglycans and structural glycoproteins. The specific blend of collagen and proteoglycan types determines the properties of the tissue. The proteoglycans are characterized by having a central protein core substituted by one or several glycosaminoglycan chains and may be divided according to size into large and small classes. Within the classes they share many common features [I]. One large and two small dermatan sulphate proteoglycans [2] have been isolated from bovine sclera and from cornea several small dermatan sulphate and keratan sulphate proteoglycans [ 3, 41.