Galactosaminoglycans from normal myometrium and leiomyoma

In many turners, the amount of chondroitin sulfate in the extracellular mat rix has been shown to be elevated when compared to the corresponding normal tissue. Nevertheless, the degree of chondroitin sulfate increase varies wi dely. In order to investigate a possible correlation between the amount of chondroitin sulfate and tumor size, several individual specimens of human l eiomyoma, a benign uterine tumor, were analyzed. The glycosaminoglycans fro m eight tumors were extracted and compared with those from the respective a djacent normal myometrium. The main glycosaminoglycan found in normal myome trium was dermatan sulfate, with small amounts of chondroitin sulfate and h eparan sulfate. In leiomyoma, both dermatan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate were detected and the total amounts of the two galactosaminoglycans was in creased in all tumors when compared to normal tissue. In contrast, the hepa ran sulfate concentration decreased in the tumor. To assess the disaccharid e composition of galactosaminoglycans, these compounds were incubated with bacterial chondroitinases AC and ABC. The amounts of L-iduronic acid-contai ning disacchaarides remained constant, whereas the concentration of D-glucu ronic acid-containing disaccharides increased from 2 to 10 times in the tur ner, indicating that D-glucuronic acid-containing disaccharides are respons ible for the elevation in galactosaminoglycan concentration. This increase is positively correlated with turner size.