scholarly journals Proteoglycans of hyaline cartilage: Electron-microscopic studies on isolated molecules

1975 ◽  
Vol 151 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Thyberg ◽  
S Lohmander ◽  
D Heinegård

Proteoglycan monomers from guinea-pig costal cartilage, bovine nasal and bovine tracheal cartilage were observed in the electron microscope after being spread in a monomolecular layer with cytochrome c. The proteoglycan molecule appeared as an extended central core filament to which side-chain filaments were attached at various intervals. The molecules from the three sources displayed great ultrastructural similarities. On average, the core filament was about 290 nm long, there were about 25 side-chain filaments per core filament, the side-chain filaments were about 45 nm long, and the distance between the attachment points of the side-chain filaments to the core filament was about 11 nm. With regard to the overall size of the molecules, no evidence of distinct subpopulations was obtained. Good correlation was found between ultrastructural data for the proteoglycan molecules and chemical data obtained by enzyme digestions and gel chromatography. Together these data strongly support the interpretation of the electron-microscopic pictures as indicating a central filament corresponding to the protein core and side-chain filaments corresponding to the chondroitin sulphate chain clusters of the proteoglycan monomers.

Development ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
S. C. Goel

The present communication describes the changing developmental pattern of the cellular organelles concerned with the synthesis and transfer of the extracellular materials during the process of chondrogenesis in chick limb-buds. Cartilage consists of a large amount of extracellular phase interspersed with chondrocytes. Chemically it is well established (Eastoe, 1961) that the main constituents of the extracellular phase are collagen and protein-polysaccharides. The latter are made up of a non-collagenous protein and acid mucopolysaccharides. The acid mucopolysaccharides are chondroitin sulphate A and C (Godman & Porter, 1960; Jackson, 1964). In electron micrographs, the extracellular phase is seen as an amorphous electron-translucent ground substance interlaced by fibrous material overlaid with electron-dense granules. The chemical interpretation of this ultrastructure is still dubious (Matukas, Panner & Orbison, 1967). It is usually considered that the amorphous ground substance consists of the acid mucopolysaccharides, the noncollagenous proteins and tropocollagen, which is a soluble form of collagen (Godman & Porter, 1960).


1978 ◽  
Vol 175 (3) ◽  
pp. 913-919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dick Heinegård ◽  
Stefan Lohmander ◽  
Johan Thyberg

1. Proteoglycan aggregates from bovine nasal cartilage were studied by using electron microscopy of proteoglycan/cytochrome c monolayers. 2. The aggregates contained a variably long central filament of hyaluronic acid with an average length of 1037nm. The proteoglycan monomers attached to the hyaluronic acid appeared as side chain filaments varying in length (averaging 249nm). They were distributed along the central filament at an average distance of about 36nm. 3. Chondroitin sulphate side chains were removed from the proteoglycan monomers of the aggregates by partial chondroitinase digestion. The molecules obtained had the same general appearance as intact aggregates. 4. Proteoglycan aggregates were treated with trypsin and the largest fragment, which contains the hyaluronic acid, link protein and hyaluronic acid-binding region, was recovered and studied with electron microscopy. Filaments that lacked the side chain extensions and had the same length as the central filament in the intact aggregate were observed. 5. Hyaluronic acid isolated after papain digestion of cartilage extracts gave filaments with similar length and size distribution as observed for the central filament both in the intact aggregate and in the trypsin digests. 6. Umbilical-cord hyaluronic acid was also studied and gave electron micrographs similar to those described for hyaluronic acid from cartilage. However, the length of the filament was somewhat shorter. 7. The electron micrographs of both intact and selectively degraded proteoglycans corroborate the current model of cartilage proteoglycan structure.


1971 ◽  
Vol 125 (3) ◽  
pp. 903-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Åke Wasteson ◽  
Ulf Lindahl

1. Electrophoresis of chondroitin sulphate, before and after partial degradation with testicular hyaluronidase, revealed charge heterogeneity of the degraded but not of the intact polymer. 2. Hyaluronidase-treated chondroitin sulphate was fractionated by gel chromatography. Two subfractions which were essentially monodisperse with regard to molecular weight (values of 8600 and 4800, respectively) were separated further by chromatography on Dowex 1. The resulting subfractions differed considerably with respect to their sulphate/disaccharide molar ratios. 3. Amino acid and neutral-sugar analyses of the Dowex 1 subfractions showed that the less sulphated fragments contained the carbohydrate–protein linkage region, whereas the high-sulphated fragments essentially lacked this constituent. It was concluded that chondroitin sulphate contains relatively less sulphate in the vicinity of the carbohydrate–protein linkage region than in the more peripheral portion of the polysaccharide chain.


1994 ◽  
Vol 298 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
D A Carrino ◽  
J E Dennis ◽  
R F Drushel ◽  
S E Haynesworth ◽  
A I Caplan

Large, chondroitin sulphate-containing proteoglycans are synthesized by three prominent tissue in the embryonic chick limb. One of these proteoglycans is aggrecan, the phenotype-specific proteoglycan of cartilage. Another, PG-M, is produced by prechondrogenic mesenchymal cells. The third, M-CSPG, is made by developing skeletal muscle cells. While the carbohydrate components of PG-M and M-CSPG share some similarities, both of these proteoglycans clearly have different carbohydrate moieties from those of aggrecan. To compare these three proteoglycans at another level, their core protein structures were analysed in three ways: by the presence or absence of monoclonal antibody epitopes, by one-dimensional peptide display of the cyanogen bromide-cleaved core proteins and by electron microscopic imaging of the molecules. Monoclonal antibodies whose epitopes are present in aggrecan core protein were tested with core protein preparations from M-CSPG and PG-M. One of these, 7D1, recognizes both PG-M and M-CSPG, while another, 1C6, shows no reactivity for the non-cartilage proteoglycans. The absence of 1C6 reactivity is of interest, as its epitope is in a region of the aggrecan core protein known to have a functional homologue in the core proteins of PG-M and M-CSPG. The cyanogen bromide-fragmented peptide pattern of M-CSPG is the same as that of PG-M, and both are different from that of aggrecan. The aggrecan pattern has one prominent large band (molecular mass 130 kDa), some less prominent large bands (molecular mass 70-100 kDa) and several smaller bands. In contrast, the PG-M and M-CSPG patterns show no bands with molecular masses > 73 kDa, and the smaller bands (molecular mass < 40 kDa) have a different pattern to that of the smaller bands from aggrecan. The electron microscopic images of aggrecan show a core protein with one end having two globular regions separated by a short linear segment; adjacent to this is a long linear segment, which sometimes contains a third globular region at the end of the core protein opposite the end with the double-globe structure. M-CSPG and PG-M core proteins never show images with the double-globe structure. Instead, one end of the molecule has a single globular domain, and a second globular region is variably present at the opposite end of the core protein. Thus, by all three methods, the core proteins of PG-M and M-CSPG appear to be the same and both differ from the core protein of aggrecan.


1984 ◽  
Vol 224 (3) ◽  
pp. 977-988 ◽  
Author(s):  
D J McQuillan ◽  
C J Handley ◽  
H C Robinson ◽  
K Ng ◽  
C Tzaicos ◽  
...  

The effect of cycloheximide on chondroitin sulphate biosynthesis was studied in bovine articular cartilage maintained in culture. Addition of 0.4 mM-cycloheximide to the culture medium was followed, over the next 4h, by a first-order decrease in the rate of incorporation of [35S]sulphate into glycosaminoglycan (half-life, t 1/2 = 32 min), which is consistent with the depletion of a pool of proteoglycan core protein. Addition of 1.0 mM-benzyl beta-D-xyloside increased the rate of incorporation of [35S]sulphate and [3H]acetate into glycosaminoglycan, but this elevated rate was also diminished by cycloheximide. It was concluded that cycloheximide exerted two effects on the tissue; not only did it inhibit the synthesis of the core protein, but it also lowered the tissue's capacity for chondroitin sulphate chain synthesis. Similar results were obtained with chick chondrocytes grown in high-density cultures. Although the exact mechanism of this secondary effect of cycloheximide is not known, it was shown that there was no detectable change in cellular ATP concentration or in the amount of three glycosyltransferases (galactosyltransferase-I, N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase and glucuronosyltransferase-II) involved in chondroitin sulphate chain synthesis. The sizes of the glycosaminoglycan chains formed in the presence of cycloheximide were larger than those formed in control cultures, whereas those synthesized in the presence of benzyl beta-D-xyloside were consistently smaller, irrespective of the presence of cycloheximide. These results suggest that beta-D-xylosides must be used with caution to study chondroitin sulphate biosynthesis as an event entirely independent of proteoglycan core-protein synthesis, and they also indicate a possible involvement of the core protein in the activation of the enzymes of chondroitin sulphate synthesis.


Author(s):  
Jan Zarzycki ◽  
Joseph Szroeder

The mammary gland ultrastructure in various functional states is the object of our investigations. The material prepared for electron microscopic examination by the conventional chemical methods has several limitations, the most important are the protein denaturation processes and the loss of large amounts of chemical constituents from the cells. In relevance to this,one can't be sure about a degree the observed images are adequate to the realy ultrastructure of a living cell. To avoid the disadvantages of the chemical preparation methods,some autors worked out alternative physical methods based on tissue freezing / freeze-drying, freeze-substitution, freeze-eatching techniqs/; actually the technique of cryoultraraicrotomy,i,e.cutting ultrathin sections from deep frozen specimens is assented as a complete alternative method. According to the limitations of the routine plastic embbeding methods we were interested to analize the mammary gland ultrastructure during lactation by the cryoultramicrotomy method.


Author(s):  
T. Kanetaka ◽  
M. Cho ◽  
S. Kawamura ◽  
T. Sado ◽  
K. Hara

The authors have investigated the dissolution process of human cholesterol gallstones using a scanning electron microscope(SEM). This study was carried out by comparing control gallstones incubated in beagle bile with gallstones obtained from patients who were treated with chenodeoxycholic acid(CDCA).The cholesterol gallstones for this study were obtained from 14 patients. Three control patients were treated without CDCA and eleven patients were treated with CDCA 300-600 mg/day for periods ranging from four to twenty five months. It was confirmed through chemical analysis that these gallstones contained more than 80% cholesterol in both the outer surface and the core.The specimen were obtained from the outer surface and the core of the gallstones. Each specimen was attached to alminum sheet and coated with carbon to 100Å thickness. The SEM observation was made by Hitachi S-550 with 20 kV acceleration voltage and with 60-20, 000X magnification.


Author(s):  
F. G. Zaki ◽  
E. Detzi ◽  
C. H. Keysser

This study represents the first in a series of investigations carried out to elucidate the mechanism(s) of early hepatocellular damage induced by drugs and other related compounds. During screening tests of CNS-active compounds in rats, it has been found that daily oral administration of one of these compounds at a dose level of 40 mg. per kg. of body weight induced diffuse massive hepatic necrosis within 7 weeks in Charles River Sprague Dawley rats of both sexes. Partial hepatectomy enhanced the development of this peculiar type of necrosis (3 weeks instead of 7) while treatment with phenobarbital prior to the administration of the drug delayed the appearance of necrosis but did not reduce its severity.Electron microscopic studies revealed that early development of this liver injury (2 days after the administration of the drug) appeared in the form of small dark osmiophilic vesicles located around the bile canaliculi of all hepatocytes (Fig. 1). These structures differed from the regular microbodies or the pericanalicular multivesicular bodies. They first appeared regularly rounded with electron dense matrix bound with a single membrane. After one week on the drug, these vesicles appeared vacuolated and resembled autophagosomes which soon developed whorls of concentric lamellae or cisterns characteristic of lysosomes (Fig. 2). These lysosomes were found, later on, scattered all over the hepatocytes.


Author(s):  
T. Mullin ◽  
G. Yee ◽  
M. Aheam ◽  
J. Trujillo

There have been numerous reports in the current literature suggesting that hematopoietic precursor cells in some human chronic myelocytic leukemias (CML) undergo lymphoblastic transformation at the time of the acute blast crisis (BC) stage. The primary evidence offered in support of this transformation theory--lymphoblastic appearing morphology, increased terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) activity, and chemotherapeutic sensitivity to vincristine and prednisone--has been indirect, however, since these features may occur in nonlymphoid cells. More direct support for the Pre-B lineage of these cells has recently been provided by immunofluorescent light microscopic studies demonstrating the presence of intracytoplasmic immunoglobulin M (IgM) in these CML-BC cells.


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