The early metabolism of noncollagenous glycoproteins during wound healing

Abstract

The results demonstrate that healing wounds develop their maximum capacity to produce non-collagenous insoluble glycoproteins before their maximum capacity for collagen biosynthesis and they are consistent with the suggestion that fucosylated structural glycoproteins form a bridge in both time and space between the fibrin clot and the appearance of collagen in the wound. Full thickness wounds, 3-mm-diameter, were made in the skin of rats. The animals were killed at various times after wounding and plugs of normal and wounded skin were obtained with a 4-mm dermal biopsy punch. The plugs were incubated with either [ 3H]fucose and Na 2 35SO 4 or [ 3H]proline and Na 2 35SO 4 and, after homogenization, various insoluble tissue fractions were assayed for incorporation of radioactivity. The biosynthetic capacities of the wound plugs for collagen and glycosaminoglycans were found to peak at Day 5 after wounding but the incorporation of [ 3H]fucose into urea/DDT-extractable glycoprotein and of [ 3H]proline into collagenase-resistant protein were both found to give significant peaks at Day 3. The incorporation of [ 3H]fucose into the residue from urea/DDT extraction was increased at Days 1–3.