Analysis of acid mucopolysaccharides in paranasal sinus diseases (author's transl)

Abstract

Acid mucopolysaccharides (acidic glycosaminoglycans) in the ground substance of the connective tissue are acting as an ion-exchanger to bring nutrients from the blood to cell and to carry metabolites in the opposite direction by their acidity. Chronic pathological change in the paransaal sinus such as sinusitis may affect the amount and characteristics of acid mucopolysaccharides, and acid mucopolysaccharides were analysed by a new micromethod. The tissues analysed were the maxillary sinus mucosa of normal, three types of chronic maxillary sinus (edematous, suppurative and fibrous), nasal polyp and maxillary cancer. The acid mucopoly-saccharides extracted from the tissues were subjected to electrophoresis on cellulose acetate strips in 0. 2M calcium acetate, imA/cm for 4 hours. After electrophoresis, the strip was stained by dipping in 0.5% alcian blue in 3% acetic acid for 20 min, rinsed with water for 10 min and dried. The strip was cleared with decaline, then subjected to densitometry at 600 nm and the area under the curves was measured. A linear relationship between the amount of polysaccharide and the area under the curve of densitometer tracing was obtained for chondroitin sulfate A, B, C and hyaluronic acid in the concentration range of 0. 1 to 1.0 μg with an error of approximately 8%. The kinds of acid mucopolysaccharides detected by electrophoretogram and enzymic digestion were hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate A and B in the all tissues examined. The largest component of them was hyaluronic acid, which was about twice as much of the normal content in chronic sinusitis except fibrous type, nasal polyp and maxillary cancer. Chondroitin sulfate A showed most conspicuous increase from 5 times to 7 times as much of the normal content. On the other hand, chondroitin sulfate B was rather stable, showing slight increase in the edematous type of chronic sinusitis and slight decrease in maxillary cancer. The total amount of acid mucopolysaccharides per dry weight was 0.24±0.05% (mean±standard error, n=4) in the normal maxillary sinus mucosa, 0.49±0.07% (n=4) in the edematous type of chronic maxillary sinusitis, 0. 49±0. 12% (n=4) in the suppurative type of chronic maxillary sinusitis, 0.38±0.06% (n=4) in the fibrous type of chronic maxillary sinusitis, 0.50±0.05%(n=8) in nasal polyp and 0.38±0.08% (n=7) in maxillary cancer, respectively