Changes in skin disaccharide components correlate with the severity of sclerotic skin in systemic sclerosis

The disaccharide contents of chondroitinase-digestible glycosaminoglycans extracted from a 6-mm punch biopsy of the forearm skin were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography after 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrasolone labelling. In 9 patients with systemic sclerosis, the amounts of both the main disaccharide unit of dermatan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate C increased significantly, as compared with 7 site-matched controls. Furthermore, the increase in dermatan sulfate was significantly correlated with both the clinical severity and the extent of skin sclerosis, while the main disaccharide unit of hyaluronic acid tended to decrease. These results confirm that changes in skin glycosaminoglycans are closely related to fibrotic processes and suggest that the alterations of disaccharide components may play a role in the collagen deposition in systemic sclerosis.