Mucopolysaccharides from Cartilage and Nucleus Pulposus

Abstract

Meyer and Rapport¹ described the isolation from hyaline cartilage of two chondroitin sulphates, A and C. The only differences so far reported² between these are in the specific optical rotation and alcohol solubility of their calcium, salts. Orr³ found that chondroitin sulphate from cartilage gives an infra-red spectrum which suggests that the product is a mixture of two isomers, A and B (see below). By counter-current electrophoresis he was able to obtain the faster component of this mixture, which exhibited in the 700–1,000 cm.⁻¹ region 3 bands, at 928, 855 and 725 cm.⁻¹, respectively, and was called the A isomer. The B isomer, on the other hand, was isolated alone in a well-defined form from the nucleus pulposus and showed two bands at 825 and 775 cm.⁻¹, respectively. Meyer et al. ² pointed out the similarity between Orr's B isomer and chondroitin sulphate C. On the other hand, both A types show the same optical rotation and origin. The following results seem to give a different picture of the mucopolysaccharides of cartilage and nucleus pulposus.