Distribution of acidic glycosaminoglycans, lipids and water in normal human cerebral arteries at various ages.

Abstract

SUMMARY Functional alterations in arterial acidic glycosaminoglycans (AGAG) may be related to the pathogenesis of some forms of cerebrovascular disease. We measured the AGAG, lipid and water content of human cerebral artery of 275 normal males at various ages. These measures were separately carried out in the main trunk and distal branches. The AGAG components were analyzed by an enzymatic assay method employing specific enzymes which digest AGAG to assess topographic change and aging variations. The total AGAG content was higher in the main cerebral artery than in the distal branches. The main AGAG component of the normal main cerebral artery was heparan sulfates (HS), constituting half the total AGAG, followed by moderate amounts of dermatan sulfate (DS), chondroitin-6-sulfate (C-6S) and chondroitin-4-sulfate (C-4S). Hyaluronic acid (HA) was a minor component and it was more prominent in young arteries. Heparin could be occasionally detected. With advancing age, the relative amounts of HS, HA, chondroitin and C-4S both in the main trunk and distal branches decreased but those of DS and C-6S increased. The total lipid, cholesterol ester and triglyceride content was greater in the main trunk than in the distal branches; the total lipid content increased with age. A possible function of the cerebral arterial AGAG is discussed with respect to change in lipid and water content according to topographic sites and aging.

High Hyaluronic Acid and Low Dermatan Sulfate Contents in Human Pulmonary Arteries Compared to in the Aorta

“…This paper describes the GAG com ponents in hum an pulmonary arteries com pared to those in the aorta. The m ajor GAGs in the arteries are chondroitin sulfate (CS), DS and HA; as determ ined by the enzymatic m icromethod involving chrondroitinase-ABC, chondroitinase-AC and chondrosulfatases, as reported previously [18,20,23,25,28]. High-perfor mance liquid chrom atography (HPLC) was also performed; it was based on the method devised for the analysis o f GAGs at the con stitutional disaccharide units after degrada tion with the above m entioned enzymes [26,27],…”

“…The preparation of GAGs was performed princi pally according to the method reported in previous papers [20,23,25,30]. After boiling for 5 min, the specimens were digested with pronase (1,000,000 ty rosine units/g, Kakenyakukao Co., Tokyo, Japan) at a ratio of 50 mg/g defatted dry tissue weight in 0.067 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.8) for 12 h. Protein digestion with the enzyme was repeated 3 times.…”

“…Chondroitinase-ABC (EC 4.2.2.4) and chondroitinase-AC II (EC 4.2.2.5) were prepared from Proteus vulgaris and Arthrobacler aurescens, respectively, at the Tokyo Institute of Seikagaku Kogyo Co., Tokyo, Japan [18,20,25]. Chondroitinase-AC II cleaves hexosaminidic linkages to form Z)-glucuronic acid and converts chondroitin, C-4S and C-6S chains to the corresponding unsaturated disaccharide (ADi-S) units, i.e" unsaturated nonsulfated, 4-sulfated and 6-sulfated disaccharides (ADi-OS, ADi-4S and ADi-6S).…”

“…Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which are components of vascular connective tissues, consist of hyaluronic acid (HA) and several sulfated GAGs, i.e., chondroitin-4-sulfate and 7-chondroitin-6-sulfate (Ch-4S and Ch-6S), dermatan sulfate (DS) and heparan sul fates (HS) [4,30,37], These GAG compo nents have been reported to change eventu ally with the topographic site [10,16,23,25,29,36], aging [ 12,20,28,36], blood pressure [8,15] and atherosclerosis [10,13,24,25,28,37,38]. However, information on GAG components in human pulmonary arteries is still limited in comparison to the aorta.…”

“…A decrease in HA content and an increase in DS content with increaing blood pressure due to aging has been reported in cerebral arteries [20] and heart valves [19]. Why younger tissues contain more HA and less DS in their intercellular matrices in these organs is still not clearly understood, but it could be partly due to a metabolic change with aging.…”