Purification of the ‘link proteins’ from bovine articular cartilage and comparison with ‘link proteins’ from nasal septum

Abstract

Summary Proteoglycan links are glycoproteins present in cartilage ground substance which are reportedly involved in stabilizing the interaction between two other components of cartilage, proteoglycan subunit and hyaluronic acid. These proteins have been isolated and purified in the past by equilibrium density centrifugation. Presented here, for the first time, is evidence for the purification of the links from bovine articular cartilage using a new method which does not involve equilibrium density centrifugation. The results indicate that the articular cartilage links have properties similar to those of the nasal septum links.