Structural characteristics of oversulfated chondroitin/dermatan sulfates in the fibrous lesions of the liver with cirrhosis

The structural characteristics of oversulfated chondroitin/dermatan sulfate s (C/DSs) in the fibrous lesions of the rat liver with cirrhosis were exami ned, Long-Evans Cinnamon rats were subjected to the present study as the mo del animals with cirrhosis. The serial polyester wax sections of liver with cirrhosis were processed into the fibrous lesions and the nonfibrous lesio ns, The oversulfated C/DSs in the tissue sections on a glass slide were deg raded to unsaturated disaccharides by chondroitinase ABC and ACII digestion in the presence of bacterial collagenase. Subsequently, the resulting unsa turated disaccharides were determined by the reversed-phase ion-pair high p erformance liquid chromatography with fluorometric postcolumn derivatizatio n using 2-cyanoacetamide as a reagent. Through these in situ investigations , we found some facts as follows: (i) in the fibrous lesion, the remarkable increase of the oversulfated C/DSs content and the decrease of the oversul fation degree of the C/DSs were observed compared with those in the nonfibr ous lesion, (ii) the proportion of the iduronic acid content in the C/DSs i n the fibrous lesion was significantly low compared with that in the nonfib rous lesion, and (iii) in the nonfibrous lesion close to the fibrous lesion , both quantitative and qualitative alterations of C/DSs were not observed at all. These findings indicate that the oversulfated C/DSs with low iduron ic acid content are possible marker for the fibrogenesis of liver with cirr hosis. (C) 1999 Academic Press.