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Updated: May 19, 2026
Detection of Glycosaminoglycans by Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis and Silver Staining
Published on: February 25, 2021
Extraction and structural analysis of glycosaminoglycans from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues
Xander M R van Wijk1, Myrtille J Vallen, Els M van de Westerlo
1Department of Biochemistry, Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are long, anionic polysaccharides involved in many basic aspects of mammalian physiology and pathology. Here we describe a method to extract GAGs from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues and found that they are structurally comparable with GAGs extracted from frozen tissues. We employed this method to structurally characterize GAGs in tissues, including laser-dissected layers of skin and pathological specimens. This method enables the use of the archival paraffin-embedded material for detailed (structural) analysis of GAGs.
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