[Study on mucopolysaccharides in human lung carcinoma tissue--characteristics in histological types (author's...

The mucopolysaccharides were prepared from human lung carcinomas of three histologically different types and the control tissue by exhaustive proteolytic digestion, quaternary ammonium chloride fractionation and column chromatography on Dowex 1 (Cl-). They were identified by chemical, enzymic and electrophoretic methods, as hyaluronic acid (HA), chondroitin sulfate (ChS), dermatan sulfate (DS), heparan sulfate (HS) and over-sulfated ChS and/or DS. Qualitatively they were not differed in tumor and normal tissues. However, the amounts of whole mucopolysaccharide were much increased in carcinomas than those of normal control in order of squamous cell carcinoma greater than small cell undifferentiated carcinoma greater than or equal to adenocarcinoma. The increment of mucopolysaccharide contents in carcinoma are largely due to increased amounts of HA and ChS. Carcinoma-type characteristic pattern was also demonstrated in terms of relative amounts of non-sulfated (HA) and sulfated (ChS, DS, HS) mucopolysaccharides: In squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma sulfated mucopolysaccharides were predominant (73 to 78% of total mucopolysaccharides), whereas in small cell undifferentiated carcinoma sulfated ones were diminished (25% of total mucopolysaccharides). In normal lung tissue sulfated mucopolysaccharide comprised 64% of total mucopolysaccharides. The presence of over-sulfated ChS and/or DS, which have not until now been found in lung tissue, was higher in carcinoma tissue as compared to the normal control. Total glycopeptides which were derived from tissue glycoproteins and not in detail characterized in this study were decreased in carcinomas of any histological types as compared to those of normal lung tissue, when expressed by hexosamine content. Biological and clinical significance of mucopolysaccharides in carcinoma state was discussed.