Acidic Glycosaminoglycans of SV40-Transformed Werner’s Syndrome Cells

Abstract

Patients with Werner’s syndrome (WS) excrete in their urine a relatively high content of hyaluronic acid (HA) among acidic glycosaminoglycan (AGAG) species (Tokunaga et al., 1975, Murata, 1982). Recently a permanent cell line (PSV811) of WS skin cells was established by SV40-transformation (Matsumura et al., in this issue). It is of interest, therefore, to study the release of AGAGs by this cell line. We isolated AGAGs from the culture fluids of PSV811 and of VA13 cells (WI-38 VA13 2RA, i.e., and SV40transformed permanent cell line of human lung cells established by Girardi et al., 1966), and compared them by electrophoresis and desitiometry with respect to the relative contents of AGAGs. We used VA13 cells for comparison because we kept this cell line in our laboratory together with PsV811 and therefore needed to compare them to check the possibility of cell contamination and because we had no more suitable control lines (SV40-transformed permanent line of normal skin fibroblasts) on hand. The relative composition of the AGAGs differed in the two lines. We describe this preliminary difference between the two lines and suggests the possibility of PSV811 carrying a WS trait.