title: Quantitative measurement of serum hyaluronic acid molecular weight in rheumatoid arthritis patients and the role of hyaluronidase.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a glycosaminoglycan and is essential for protecting the cartilage surface by its physical property. It is known that serum HA concentration in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients is higher than in healthy volunteer. However, molecular weight (MW) of serum HA in RA patients is not clear, since it needs a large sample volume to assay serum HA MW. The aim of this study is to establish the method for measuring serum HA MW in small sample sizes and to assess the association between serum HA MW and hyaluronidase (HAase) activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  MW of serum HA in RA patients was measured using high-performance liquid chromatography and HA-binding protein. Additionally, the correlation between serum HA and HAase activity was examined using zymographic measurements.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum HA MW peaked at 1-2 × 10(5) Da in all cases. However, in certain cases two peaks were observed, one each at low (1-2 × 10(5) Da) and high (8-14 × 10(5) Da) MW. HAase activity was lower in cases exhibiting this two-peaked serum HA MW pattern than in those cases with only a single peak.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The novel method developed for this study permits accurate measurement of serum HA MW. The correlation observed between serum HA MW and HAase activity suggests that serum HA MW may reflect the condition of subjects' joints.
authors: Department of Pathology, Iwate Medical University, Shiwa-Gun, Japan.
authors: Yoshiko
authors: Y
authors: Sasaki
authors: Miwa
authors: M
authors: Uzuki
authors: Kenji
authors: K
authors: Nohmi
authors: Hironoshin
authors: H
authors: Kitagawa
authors: Akihisa
authors: A
authors: Kamataki
authors: Masataka
authors: M
authors: Komagamine
authors: Kenya
authors: K
authors: Murakami
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Sawai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000201:enzymology; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors / Q000737:chemistry; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry; D006821:Hyaluronoglucosaminidase / Q000378:metabolism*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007596:Joints / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008970:Molecular Weight; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid; D006821:Hyaluronoglucosaminidase