Proteoglycans are complex molecules composed of long, unbranched sugar chains attached to a protein core. In the mammalian central nervous system, they are a major component of the extracellular matrix and of the cellular surface. After a central nervous system injury, their expression in the lesion area changes strongly and contributes to the inhibition of axon regrowth and brain repair.

Chondrocytes isolated from bovine articular cartilage were plated at high density and grown in the presence or absence of ascorbate. Collagen and proteoglycans, the major matrix macromolecules synthesized by these cells, were isolated at times during the course of the culture period and characterized. In both control and ascorbate-treated cultures, type II collagen and cartilage proteoglycans a...

BACKGROUND By virtue of their high net negative charge, glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans play pivotal roles in biologic processes such as cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, sequestration of growth factors, activation of chemokines and cytokines, and permselectivity of basement membranes. METHODS The present article reviews the putative roles of glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans in...

Proteoglycans were extracted from bovine lung gas exchange tissue, pleura, and bronchioles with 4.0 M guanidinium chloride at 5 degrees C in the presence of protease inhibitors. Preliminary purification of the proteoglycans was achieved by an initial CsCl isopycnic centrifugation (rho 0 = 1.33) and through precipitation with cetylpyridinium chloride in 0.5 M KCl. Further purification and fracti...

Cell adhesion is a process which is initiated by the attachment of cells to specific sites in adhesive matrix proteins via cell surface receptors of the integrin family. This is followed by a reorganization of cytoskeletal elements which results in cell spreading and the formation of focal adhesion plaques. We have examined the effects of a class of small galactosaminoglycan-containing proteogl...

To delineate the role of proteoglycans in turkey skeletal muscle development, proteoglycan expression was examined in pectoral muscle from 14-, 20-, and 25-d-old embryos. Proteoglycans were separated by DEAE (diethylaminoethyl cellulose) anion exchange and molecular sieve chromatography. Glycosaminoglycan composition was measured by enzyme digestion and nitrous acid deamination. The proteoglyca...

Ng-CAM and N-CAM are cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), and each CAM can bind homophilically as demonstrated by the ability of CAM-coated beads (Covaspheres) to self-aggregate. We have found that the extent of aggregation of Covaspheres coated with either Ng-CAM or N-CAM was strongly inhibited by the intact 1D1 and 3F8 chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans of rat brain, and by the core glycoproteins r...

35S-Labeled proteoglycans produced by chondrocytes from immature and mature rabbits were fractionated on associative CsCl gradients. In all cultures, greater than 85% of the incorporated radioactivity was present in the A1 fraction (rho 1.60) as chondroitin sulfate/keratin sulfate-substituted aggregating proteoglycan monomer; the remainder was present in small proteoglycans in the A2, A3, and A...

chains, can make purification challenging and structural analysis painful. Their ability to bind scores of growth factors, growth factor-binding proteins, extracellular proteases, protease inhibitors, extracellular matrix molecules, and other proteins takes the concept of molecular promiscuity to new heights. On top of this, they seem always to be underfoot, showing up on plasma membranes in hu...

A large array of glycoproteins, glycolipids, and proteoglycans decorate the surfaces of animal cells. These glycoconjugates mediate many fundamental cellular processes, including cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion, motility, growth, and signaling (28, 110). Over time, many pathogenic microorganisms have learned to exploit cell surface glycoconjugates as receptors for attachment, a process which...