Mucoitin sulfuric acid

In unpublished work from our laboratory on inhibition of peptic activity by hog gastric mucin and commercially available mucoitin sulfuric acid, we also were unable to find significant inhibition of the peptic... 

Meyer et ah (M37) isolated two different types of carbohydrate material from hog gastric mucin. One of them had equimolecular amounts of glucosamine, hexuronic acid, acetyl groups, and sulfate, which was therefore thought to be mucoitin sulfuric acid. The second was a neutral polysaccharide, which will be discussed below. Wolfrom and Rice identified (W23) the hexuronic acid in this preparation as D-glucuronic acid. 

Since that time, the existence of mucoitin sulfuric acid has been in doubt. 

Meyer (M34, M35) classified the neutral polysaccharide of hog gastric mucin as mucoid, since it contained over 4% hexosamine. This probably corresponded to the mixture of the carbohydrate moieties of fuco-mucin and sialomucin, whereas his acidic mucopolysaccharide (mucoitin sulfuric acid) consisted perhaps of a mixture of acidic aminopolysac-charides (mucopolyuronides) and possibly some sialic acid. 

The neutral polysaccharides of the human gastric juice and mucus form the carbohydrate part of what Komarov (K25) called mucoprotein 2 or neutral mucoprotein, while his mucoprotein 1 or acid mucoprotein contained mucoitin sulfuric acid. ... 

K21. Komarov, S. A., The influence of mucoitin-sulfuric acid on peptic digestion. Am. ]. Digest. Diseases 3, 164-166 (1936). 

L8b. Levene, P. A., and Lopez-Suaiez, J., The conjugated sulfuric acid of the mucin of pig s stomach (mucoitin sulfuric acid). J. Biol. Chem. 25, 511-516 (1916). 

Jorpes " associated activity with degree of sulfation (see page 361), and he reported that his amorphous preparations had a sulfur content of 13.5 % (sodium salt basis). The fractionation procedures (brucine salt) were performed on heparins obtained from various tissues, " and it was postulated that the heparin material was not a definite compound but was a mixture of mucoitin polysulfuric acid esters. Fractions corresponding in their sulfur content to mono-, di-, and tri-sulfates (per disaccharide period) were obtained, together with sulfur-free fractions (see also Marbet and Winter-stein ). The most active material had a sulfur content of 13.8%, corresponding to three sulfate groups per disaccharide unit. 

Tl. Takahasi, M., and Yasuoka, T., Biochemical studies on carbohydrates. 84. Does mucoitin exist in the animal body as combined with sulfuric acid Tohoku J. Exptl. Med. 49, 65-67 (1947). 

Gastric mucin is the classical source of the so-called mucoitin sulfates of Levene 1) (see below). It has been an important source of the blood-group specific polysaccharides (see above), which appear to be the major known components 76), Other polysaccharide components are heparin, two chondroitin sulfates (77), and a zoopolysaccharide composed of A-ace-tyl-D-glucosamine, D-galacturonic acid, and sulfuric acid 78). 

Karl Meyer was a physician and biochemist who emigrated firom Hitler s Germany to America and worked at that time in the Eye Institute of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, in New York. He did not discover hyaluronic acid, which was known under the name of mucoitin sulfate, but he verified its chemical structure and discovered that it contained no sulfur. But, most importantly, he gave a new, more appropriate name to it hyaluronic acid. After reading his papers, I concluded... 

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