Isolation of neutral heteropolysaccharide containing mucoprotein from bovine Achilles tendon with the aid of collagenmucoproteinase.

The Achilles tendon is built up mainly of collagen and it contains minute amounts of ground substances and cell materials. Opinions about its content of polysaccharides vary considerably. The ground substance of connective tissue is rich in acid mucopolysaccharides and Meyer (1957) has isolated the chondroitin sulphates from Achilles tendon. Besides the acid mucopolysaccharides the presence of other mucopolysaccharides has been suggested. First Grassmann & Schleich (1935) showed that collagen isolated from the skin and from Achilles tendon contains 0'5-0 7 % of polysaccharides. Consden (1953) and Consden, Glynn & Stanier (1953), using a combination of paper electrophoresis and paper chromatography, have shown that the connective tissues contain polysaccharides which after acid hydrolysis yield glucose, mannose, galactose and glucosamine. Bowes, Elliott & Moss (1955), and especially Moss (1955), are of the opinion that the negligible amount of hexosamine and the very small amount of hexose found in collagen may be impurities. With the aid ofthe enzyme collagemnucoproteinase isolated from the pancreas (Banga & Balo, 1956) the present authors succeeded in showing the existence of a protein fraction, collagenmucoprotein2 (mucoid2), the polysaccharide component of which, it was suggested, was not identical with the acid polysaccharides (Banga, 1958). It was thought that this substance might be responsible for the periodic acid Schiff reaction given by connective tissue. Mucoid2 is one of the important constituents of collagen fibre (Banga, 1958). It also takes part in the chemical contraction relaxation phenomenon of collagen (Balo, Szabo & Banga, unpublished work). In the present paper the isolation and analysis of mucoid2 are described.