Two forms of dermatan sulfate proteoglycans, called DS-PGI and DS-PGII, have been isolated from both bovine fetal skin and calf articular cartilage and characterized. The proteoglycans were isolated using either (a) molecular sieve chromatography under conditions where DS-PGI selectively self-associates or (b) chromatography on octyl-Sepharose, which separates DS-PGI from DS-PGII based on diffe...

Heparin proteoglycan formed by incubation of purified rat peritoneal mast cells with [3KS]sulfate has previously been shown to be a proteoglycan with an approximate average molecular weight of 750,000 by gel filtration. This proteoglycan which was isolated in the absence of proteases has now been shown to contain approximately equal amounts of serine and glycine which together account for 82% o...

Chondrocytes dedifferentiate during ex vivo expansion on 2-dimensional surfaces. Aggregation of the expanded cells into 3-dimensional pellets, in the presence of induction factors, facilitates their redifferentiation and restoration of the chondrogenic phenotype. Typically 1×10(5)-5×10(5) chondrocytes are aggregated, resulting in "macro" pellets having diameters ranging from 1-2 mm. These macro...