Constitutional heterogeneity of the glycosaminoglycans in articular cartilage proteoglycans

Proteoglycans were extracted from bovine articular cartilage with guanidine-HCl and fractionated in cesium chloride density gradients by equilibrium ultracentrifugation. The acidic glycosaminoglycan (AGAG) components were then determined enzymatically with chondroitinase-ABC and streptomyces hyaluronidase. Under associative and dissociative conditions, the distribution of the AGAG components was as follows: the ratio of 4-sulfated disaccharide units to total AGAG increased with decreasing density gradients whereas that of 6-sulfated disaccharide units to total AGAG increased with increasing density gradients. The ratio of disulfated disaccharide units to total AGAG increased somewhat with decreasing density gradients whereas that of non-sulfated disaccharide units tended to decrease. Although the cartilage proteoglycan macromolecules were heterogeneous, a certain regularity was observed with respect to the distribution of sulfate and the degree of sulfation in the chondroitin sulfate chains of the proteoglycans.