Analysis of Sulfated Polysaccharide Conjugates

Abstract

Glycosaminoglycan and proteoglycan biosynthesis appears to be a ubiquitous function in animal cells. Some biological sources, notably connective tissue, produce large quantities of proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans, which can be readily detected by colorimetric assays and therefore investigated by well established techniques, which are fully described elsewhere (1,2). However, most tissues and culture systems will contain submilligram amounts of these macromolecules. This means that their investigation requires radiolabeling. [³⁵S]sulfate is relatively inexpensive, and is efficiently detected by both liquid scintillation counting and fluorography. A major disadvantage is the relatively short half-life of ³⁵S, 88 d, which limits the time available for postincorporation analysis. However, an advantage of radiolabeling is that only those macromolecules synthesized during the labeling period will be studied. Previously synthesized macromolecules that may be partially degraded will not be detectable.