Lactate production and utilization by a differentiated culture of sheep thyroid cells.

Dietrich, 1976): however, background staining is high and variable. Alcian Blue with 0.05 M-MgCI, provided effective labelling of all cartilage glycosaminoglycans, including trace amounts of hyaluronate. The hyaluronate did not form a complex with Alcian Blue either in the absence of MgCI, or at molarities greater than 0.1. In the described scheme, hyaluronate was resolved from chondroitin and keratan sulphates that migrated together (Fig. I). Cartilage keratan sulphate (type 11) was not a substrate of chondroitin ABC lyase (Yamagata et al., 1968), and could be recovered after subsequent electrophoresis and staining (Fig. I). The chondroitin sulphates were determined from the difference before and after treatment with chondroitin ABC lyase, or alternatively by assay of the disaccharides (Elliott & Gardner, 1977, 1978). The calibration curves of glycosaminoglycan standards were in agreement with Whiteman's (1973) findings, although the assay procedures differed considerably. The described procedure enables microgram quantities of cartilage glycosaminoglycans to be determined, by using microscopic sections, from anatomical defined zones of heterogeneous connective tissues, such as articular cartilage (Elliott & Gardner, 1979).