Sulfate containing proteoglycans

Figure 7. Portion of an intimal smooth muscle cell and the adjacent intercellular matrix from a primate artery (Macaca nemestrina) stained with ruthenium red. The ruthenium red stains numerous polygonal granules associated with each other through 30-60 A diameter filamentous projections which, based on studies with chondroitinases, must represent dermatan sulfate-containing proteoglycans (X 40,000). As shown in the insert, the 30-60 A filaments interconnect granules, collagen fibers, elastin, and the surfaces of cells (X 140,000). Reproduced from Proteoglycans in Primate Arteries. I. Ultrastructural Localization and Distribution in the Intima, by Thomas N. Wight and Russell Ross, J. Cell Biol. (1975) 67,...

Observations by several workers suggest that at least some of the ruthenium red staining material found in the plasma membranes of cells is heparan sulfate-containing proteoglycan. Cells in culture appear to synthesize three discreet pools of glycosaminoglycans ... 

Using heparinase and heparitinase from Flavobacterium heparinum, Buonassisi has provided evidence for the presence of heparan sulfate-containing proteoglycans in the plasma membranes of endothelial cells from rabbit aorta (73.74). 

E.J. Campbell, C.A. Owen, The sulfate groups of chondroitin sulfate- and heparan sulfate-containing proteoglycans in neutrophil plasma membranes are novel binding sites for human leukocyte elastase and cathepsin G, J. Biol. Chem. 282 (19) (2007) 14645-14654. 

The effect of ascorbic acid on the production of proteoglycans is rather controversial. Edward and Oliver (1983) found that both hyaluronate and sulfated gly-cosaminoglycan synthesis by human skin fibroblasts was affected by vitamin C. Kao and coworkers (1990) found that ascorbic acid stimulates the production of glycosaminoglycans in cultured fibroblasts, whereas Pacifici (1990) observed that in chick chondrocyte cultures the secretion of keratin sulfate and chondroitin sulfate-containing proteoglycans was not affected by ascorbic acid in the culture medium. 

Several natural polysaccharides are esterified with sulfuric or phosphoric acid. Sulfated bacterial polysaccharides are not, however, very common. One example is a polysaccharide from an Arthrobacter species, which is most probably linked to the proteoglycan and contains sulfated D-galactopy-ranosyl residues. An extracellular polysaccharide from a Phormidium spe-... 

Proteoglycans linked to chondroitin sulfate by the Xyl-Ser O-glycosidic bond are prominent components of cartilage (see below). The repeating disaccharide is similar to that found in hyaluronic acid, containing... 

This molecule is present on many cell sur ces as a proteoglycan and is extracellular. It contains GlcN with fewer N-sulfates than heparin, and, unhke heparin, its predominant uronic acid is GlcUA. 

The intima of the arterial wall contains hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate, dermatan sulfate, and heparan sulfate proteoglycans. Of these proteoglycans, dermatan sulfate binds plasma low-density lipoproteins. In addition, dermatan sulfate appears to be the major GAG synthesized by arterial smooth muscle cells. Because it is these cells that profiferate in atherosclerotic lesions in arteries, dermatan sulfate may play an important role in development of the atherosclerotic plaque. 

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