[Glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content and GAG electropherogram pattern of breast tumors and chronic fibrous mastopathy]

Out of 400 surgical specimens besides the histological and histochemical tests the content of glycosaminoglycans (GAG) was determined using biochemical methods. There were involved different kinds of tumours (carcinoma of the breast and their metastases, mammary fibroadenom, sarcomata of different origin, malignant melanoma) as well as gynaecomastia and mastopathy. As the results demonstrate, growing tumours are characterized by an elevated content of GAG compared to their tissue of origin. The mean GAG-content of the kinds of tumours investigated can vary by the factor 5. The highest mean GAG-content was found in sarcomata followed by mammary fibroadenomata and carcinomata of the breast. Additionally to their different GAG-content the different tumours and pathological changes as mastopathy are characterized by their different qualitative and quantitative composition of their GAG-components visualized by chromatographic and electrophoretic separation technique. As the evaluation of the electrophoretic results shows, there are existing GAG-electropherogram-patterns which are characteristically for a kind of tumour but not specifically. The usefulness of GAG-electropherogram-patterns is demonstrated. They enables us for example to differentiate between carcinoma of the breast and chronic fibrous mastopathy. Therefore it is suggested to take the ground substance and the GAG as an essential part of it more into consideration for the histological findings of tumours.