BACKGROUND First trimester increased fetal nuchal translucency is associated with fetal aneuploidies. One of the mechanisms of pathophysiology could be an abnormal extracellular matrix facilitating the formation of an interstitial edema. A previous study investigating interstitial edema in first trimester fetuses found large amounts of hyaluronan in the skin of fetuses with trisomy 21. The aim ...

Proteoglycans may modulate axon growth in the intact and injured adult mammalian CNS. Here we investigate the distribution and time course of deposition of a range of proteoglycans between 4 and 14 days following unilateral axotomy of the nigrostriatal tract in anaesthetised adult rats. Immunolabelling using a variety of antibodies was used to examine the response of heparan sulphate proteoglyc...

In high performance liquid chromatographic procedures hitherto described, SiO2, NH2 and RP columns have been used for the analysis of disaccharides produced by the digestion of glycosaminoglycans with the chondroitin sulphate lyases AC and ABC. The use of a potent anion exchanger offers the following advantages over these columns: superior separation characteristics for non-sulphated disacchari...

The kinetics of inhibition of human thrombin and Factor Xa by antithrombin III or heparin cofactor II were examined under pseudo-first-order conditions as a function of the concentration of naturally occurring oversulphated chondroitin and dermatan sulphates. The sulphated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) studied were chondroitin sulphate D (CSD) (GlcA-2-SO4-GalNAc-6-SO4), chondroitin sulphate K (CSK)...

Radiolabelled chondroitin 4-sulphate was isolated after incubation of rat rib cartilage with N-acetyl-D-[6-3H]galactosamine. After proteolytic digestion of the tissue with either papain or trypsin the released [3H]chondroitin 4-sulphate was added to an isolated perfused rat liver system. Analysis of perfusate after several hours perfusion showed that radiolabelled amino sugars were secreted by ...

Human N-acetylgalactosamine 6-sulphatase (EC 3.1.6.14), which is involved in the lysosomal degradation of the glycosaminoglycans keratan sulphate and chondroitin 6-sulphate, was purified more than 130000-fold in 2.8 % yield from liver by an eight-step column procedure. One major form was identified with a pl of 5.7 and a native molecular mass of 62 kDa by gel filtration. When analysed by SDS/PA...

The degradation of chondroitin 4-[35S]sulphate isolated from chick-embryo cartilage was studied in the rat by experiments on free-range animals, on wholly anaesthetized animals with ureter cannulae, by perfusion of isolated liver, by whole-body radioautography and by isolation of liver lysosomes. After injection into rats 68% of the radioactivity was recovered in the urine after 24h, approximat...

The literature contains numerous references to the formation of insoluble complexes when polysulphate and poly(carboxylic acid) macromolecules are added to various plasma and serum colloids. Chondroitin sulphate, for instance, precipitates complexes containing protein and cholesterol (Badin & Schubert, 1955; Kerby, Taylor & Langley, 1961). Heparin forms insoluble complexes with fibrinogen (Smit...

Pre-α-inhibitor is a serum protein consisting of two polypeptides : bikunin of 16 kDa, which carries an 8 kDa chondroitin sulphate chain, and heavy chain 3 (H3) of 74 kDa. The two polypeptides are linked through an ester bond between an internal Nacetylgalactosamine residue of the chondroitin sulphate chain and the C-terminal aspartic acid residue of H3. Both bikunin and H3 are synthesized by h...