Cp. Dietrich et al., ANOMALOUS STRUCTURE OF URINARY CHONDROITIN SULFATE FROM CANCER-PATIENTS - A POTENTIAL NEW MARKER FOR DIAGNOSIS OF NEOPLASIAS, Laboratory investigation, 68(4), 1993, pp. 439-445
BACKGROUND: Chondroitin sulfate is significantly increased in tumors (
10 to 100 times) when compared to the amounts present in normal adjace
nt tissues. To investigate if the changes in concentration of chondroi
tin sulfate could be reflected in the urine of cancer patients we have
analyzed the chondroitin sulfate excreted by 44 patients with differe
nt types of tumors, 50 normal individuals and 15 patients with unrelat
ed diseases. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: The identification and structural an
alyses of the sulfated glycosaminoglycans were made by electrophoresis
and degradation with specific enzymes (chondroitinases AC and ABC), i
dentification/quantitation of their disaccharide products by chromatog
raphy (paper and HPLC) and chemical determinations. RESULTS: The disac
charide products formed from chondroitin sulfate of the 44 cancer pati
ents by action of chondroitinase ABC show a substantial relative incre
ase of non sulfated disaccharide (32.1% +/- 15.2) with a relative decr
ease of 6-sulfated disaccharide (28.9% +/- 11.5) and 4-sulfated disacc
haride (39.0% +/- 13.5) when compared to the chondroitin sulfate of no
rmal subjects (9.1% +/- 2.2, 40.6% +/- 4.5 and 50.2% +/- 4.5, respecti
vely) or from patients with unrelated diseases. There is a direct corr
elation between the non sulfated disaccharide content and the stage of
malignancy of the cancer patients. A significant change of the ratio
of chondroitin sulfate and heparan sulfate and a decrease in the elect
rophoretic migration of chondroitin sulfate were also observed in canc
er patients. CONCLUSIONS: All the cancer patients analyzed so far have
shown the structural anomaly of the urinary chondroitin sulfate and t
his may be useful in the diagnosis and follow up of cancer therapy.