Detection of Proteoglycan Core Proteins with Glycosaminoglycan Lyases and Antibodies

Abstract

Proteoglycans are quite abundant components of many extracellular matrices, while most cell surfaces also bear these macromolecules. Frequently the profiles are complex. For example, several members of the syndecan and glypican families of cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans may be present on a single cell type (1,2). Some extracellular matrices, e.g., from brain, may also contain a variety of proteoglycans including several members of the hyalectans or aggregating proteoglycans such as neurocan, brevican, and versican (3). Frequently it is useful to monitor the nature and variety of proteoglycans in a pool from tissues or cell cultures in a simple manner, before moving on to further purification steps, use of core protein-specific antibodies, or pursuit of a potentially novel core protein.