Biliary epithelia express high levels of CD44 in hepatobiliary diseases. The role of CD44-hyaluronic acid interaction in biliary pathology, however, is unclear. A rat model of hepatic cholestasis induced by bile duct ligation was employed for characterization of hepatic CD44 expression and extracellular hyaluronan distribution. Cell culture experiments were employed to determine whether hyaluro...

Herein, we describe an efficient and high-yielding method to synthesize hyaluronan oligosaccharide-lipid conjugates. This strategy is based on first covalently attaching diphytanoyl glycerophosphatidylethanolamine (DiPhPE) to commercially available high molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HA), via the carboxylate group of the glucuronic acid using carbodiimide chemistry. The HA-lipid conjugate mi...

Hyaluronic acid (HA or hyaluronan) is a natural, high molecular weight, linear polysaccharide composed of alternating N-acetyl glucosamine and glucuronic acid disaccharide units. HA is ubiquitous in human and animal tissues. It is found in the vitreous body, in the extracellular matrix of soft connective tissues, and in the synovial fluids. By supplementing the body’s level of glycosaminoglycan...

PURPOSE We address the question whether lamivudine treatment modulates serum concentrations of hyaluronic acid and whether the pre-treatment HA level can give the information about the presumptive result of treatment and whether HA level evaluation can be useful in monitoring the antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis B. MATERIAL AND METHODS Forty-nine patients, 31 man, aged 40 +/- 2.5 years ...

Streptococcus pneumoniae hyaluronate lyase is a surface antigen of this Gram-positive human bacterial pathogen. The primary function of this enzyme is the degradation of hyaluronan, which is a major component of the extracellular matrix of the tissues of vertebrates and of some bacteria. The enzyme degrades its substrate through a beta-elimination process called proton acceptance and donation. ...

Hyaluronan (hyaluronic acid or HA) is an important component of the extracellular matrix which is synthesized in the tissue, transported in lymph and catabolized mainly in lymph nodes and the liver. In 39 patients with chronic peripheral lymphedema, the HA content in lymphedematous interstitial fluid was measured using radioimmunoassay. For comparison, the concentration of HA in serum and norma...

Nuchal skin oedema at 10-14 weeks gestation, observed by ultrasonography as increased nuchal translucency (NT), is found in approximately 70% of fetuses with trisomies 21, 18 and 13 as well as those with Turner's syndrome. This study investigates the possibility that one mechanism for increased translucency is an altered composition of the skin with a higher concentration of hyaluronan; large a...

The detachment of normal epithelial cells from matrix triggers an apoptotic response known as anoikis, during homeostatic turnover. Metastatic tumor cells evade anoikis, by mechanisms that are only partly characterized. In particular, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in a subset of invasive tumor cells confers anoikis-resistance. In some cases, EMT up-regulates the cancer stem cell m...

Ideally, rationally designed tissue engineering scaffolds promote natural wound healing and regeneration. Therefore, we sought to synthesize a biomimetic hydrogel specifically designed to promote tissue repair and chose hyaluronic acid (HA; also called hyaluronan) as our initial material. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring polymer associated with various cellular processes involved in wou...

In this paper, we propose the evaluation of the mannitol’s ability to reduce hyaluronic acid (HA) degradation using two different models of oxidative stress. Firstly, a solution of hyaluronan and a solution of the same HA including mannitol in PBS buffer were submitted to an oxidative stress generated by the addition of xanthine + xanthine oxidase generating oxygen free radicals. Different enzy...