[Studies on acid glycosaminoglycans in rabbit uterine cervix and body (author's transl)]

We aimed to identified cervical ripening at term pregnancy by measuring acid glycosaminoglycans (aGAG) in nonpregnant and immediately postpartum rabbits cervix and body. aGAG was extracted from the uterine tissues by the modified method of K. Anno (1964) and determined by the carbazole method (Bitter, 1962). Components of aGAG were separated by two dimensional electrophoresis (0.1M pyridine-0.47M formic acid in the first and 0.1M calcium acetate buffer in the second) using acetate cellulose strips. aGAG were separated five spots that were identified hyaluronic acid, heparan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate A, dermatan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate C. These results were confirmed by method of hyaluronidase, chondroitinase AC and ABC digestion test.