Pulmonary emphysema was induced in rats by a single intratracheal instillation of pancreatic elastase. The short-term effects of elastase instillation on basement membrane components were evaluated using immunohistochemical and biochemical methods. Lung alveoli showed a decrease in heparan sulphate proteoglycan content (especially of its heparan sulphate chains) 3 h to 7 days after induction. T...

Confluent cultures of mouse aortic endothelial (END-D) were incubated with either [35S]methionine or 35SO4 2-, and the radiolabelled proteoglycans in media and cell layers were analysed for their hyaluronate-binding activity. The proteoglycan subfraction which bound to hyaluronate accounted for about 18% (media) and 10% (cell layers) of the total 35S radioactivity of each proteoglycan fraction....

Heparan sulphate proteoglycans and the extracellular matrix of bone-marrow-stromal cells are important components of the microenvironment of haematopoietic tissues and are involved in the interaction of haematopoietic stem and stromal cells. Previous studies have emphasized the role of heparan sulphate proteoglycan synthesis by bone-marrow-stromal cells. In the present study we describe the exp...

Aims-To investigate whether proteoglycan synthesis is altered in skin fibroblasts in patients with Alzheimer's disease compared with normal subjects.Methods-Cell lines obtained from donors with Alzheimer's disease and healthy controls were incubated with radioactive sulphate. The proteoglycans synthesised were determined and analysed by chromatographic, sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide ge...

The recent discovery of nuclear and perinuclear perlecan in annulus fibrosus nucleus pulposus cells its known matrix stabilizing properties tissues introduces the possibility that may also have intracellular or regulatory roles through interactions with envelope cytoskeletal proteins nucleosomal-chromatin organization regulate transcriptional factors modulate gene expression. is a mechano-senso...

We here report for the first time on the chemical characteristics of proteoglycans associated with mouse splenic reactive AA amyloid. Amyloid was induced in CBA/J mice by two different procedures; conventional casein treatment and by employing Freund's complete adjuvant, accelerated by Trypan Blue. Pulse-labelling was employed at distinct stages during amyloid development, followed by [35S]prot...

Syndecan-1 is a proteoglycan that concentrates heparin-binding factors on the surface of multiple myeloma cells, and probably plays a major role in multiple myeloma biology. As heparan sulphate and chondroitin sulphate are the bioactive components of syndecan-1, we analysed the signature of genes encoding 100 proteins involved in synthesis of these chains, i.e. from precursor uptake to post-tra...

Proteoglycans are cell surface and extracellular matrix molecules to which long, unbranched glycosaminoglycan side chains are attached. Heparan sulphate, a type of glycosaminoglycan chain, has been proposed as a co-factor necessary for signalling by a range of growth factors. Here we provide evidence that loss of 2-O-sulphation in heparan sulphate leads to a significant reduction in cell prolif...

Maintenance of fibroblasts in 0.5% serum results in viable but non-proliferative cells that may be analogous to fibroblasts in vivo. The synthesis of proteoglycans by human embryo lung fibroblasts in Eagle's minimal essential medium with 0.5% newborn-bovine serum or with 10% serum has been compared. A similar amount of [35S]sulphate-labelled glycosaminoglycan per cell was secreted by fibroblast...