title: Demonstration of glycosaminoglycans in Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: A considerable amount (approximately 1.6 microg from 1 mg of dried nematode) of non-sulfated chondroitin, two orders of magnitude less yet an appreciable amount of heparan sulfate, and no hyaluronate were found in Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes. The chondroitin chains were heterogeneous in size, being shorter than that of whale cartilage chondroitin sulfate. The disaccharide composition analysis of heparan sulfate revealed diverse sulfation including glucosamine 2-N-sulfation, glucosamine 6-O-sulfation and uronate 2-O-sulfation. These results imply that chondroitin and heparan sulfate are involved in fundamental biological processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Kobe Pharmaceutical University, 4-19-1 Motoyamakita-machi, Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Van Die
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Van den Eijnden
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yokota
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kitagawa
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugahara
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000737:chemistry*; D002807:Chondroitin / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006025:Glycosaminoglycans / Q000032:analysis*; D006497:Heparan Sulfate / Q000302:isolation & purification; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
chemical_list: D002807:Chondroitin; D006025:Glycosaminoglycans; D006497:Heparan Sulfate