Separation and characterization of dermatan sulfate in normal human urine

Dermatan sulfate excreted in normal human urine was isolated and characterized by TLC and cellulose acetate strip electrophoresis after cetylpyridinium chloride precipitation and pronase digestion. In these separation methods, dermatan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate were extracted and then monitored by sensitive HPLC methods with post column fluorometric derivatization coupled with chondroitinase ABC, ACII and B digestion. From the results, we demonstrated that human urinary dermatan sulfate contains iduronic acid as its major uronic acid (80-90% of total uronic acid), and is composed mainly of repeated mono-sulfated disaccharide units [Di-4S (structure shown in Fig. 1), 89%] and small numbers of di-sulfated disaccharide units (Di-diSB, 7% and Di-diSE, 1%).