Glycosaminoglycans are important structural components in the skin and exist as various proteoglycan forms, except hyaluronic acid. Heparan sulfate (HS), one of the glycosaminoglycans, is composed of repeated disaccharide units, which are glucuronic acids linked to an N-acetyl-glucosamine or its sulfated forms. To investigate acute ultraviolet (UV)-induced changes of HS and HS proteoglycans (HSPGs), changes in levels of HS and several HSPGs in male human buttock skin were examined by immunohistochemistry and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) after 2 minimal erythema doses (MED) of UV irradiation (each n = 4-7). HS staining revealed that 2 MED of UV irradiation increased its expression, and staining for perlecan, syndecan-1, syndecan-4, CD44v3, and CD44 showed that UV irradiation increased their protein levels. However, analysis by real-time qPCR showed that UV irradiation did not change mRNA levels of CD44 and agrin, and decreased perlecan and syndecan-4 mRNA levels, while increased syndecan-1 mRNA level. As HS-synthesizing or -degrading enzymes, exostosin-1 and heparanase mRNA levels were increased, but exostosin-2 was decreased by UV irradiation. UV-induced matrix metalloproteinase-1 expression was confirmed for proper experimental conditions. Acute UV irradiation increases HS and HSPG levels in human skin, but their increase may not be mediated through their transcriptional regulation.
Adult ; Agrin/genetics ; Antigens, CD44/genetics ; Base Sequence ; DNA Primers/genetics ; Gene Expression/radiation effects ; Glucuronidase/genetics ; Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans/genetics/*metabolism ; Heparitin Sulfate/metabolism ; Humans ; Male ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 1/genetics ; N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases/genetics ; RNA, Messenger/genetics/metabolism ; Skin/*metabolism/*radiation effects ; Skin Aging/genetics/physiology ; Syndecan-1/genetics ; Syndecan-4/genetics ; Ultraviolet Rays/*adverse effects ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND: Syndecan-1 is a heparan sulfate proteoglycan expressed on plasma cells, especially myeloma cells, and can exist in serum as soluble syndecan-1 after shedding from the cell surface. Soluble syndecan-1 has been suggested to promote myeloma cell growth and to be an independent prognostic factor for multiple myeloma. We aimed to evaluate the effect of soluble syndecan-1 levels at the time of diagnosis and during therapy on therapeutic response and prognosis for patients with multiple myeloma. METHODS: We analyzed soluble syndecan-1 levels in 28 patients with multiple myeloma and 50 normal controls, and compared its levels with Durie-Salmon stage and other markers of myeloma. In addition, we evaluated the therapeutic response and determined the 3-year survival rates of these patients. RESULTS: We observed that the median soluble syndecan-1 level in myeloma patients was higher than that in the normal controls (P <0.0001), and the soluble syndecan-1 levels in 21 (75%) patients were higher than the cut-off level (162 ng/mL). Soluble syndecan-1 levels correlated with disease stage, percentage of plasma cells in the bone marrow, beta2 microglobulin level, serum M-component concentration, and creatinine level. The baseline levels of soluble syndecan-1 at the time of diagnosis in the patients who responded to chemotherapy were lower than those in the non-responders (P=0.04); however, the baseline level was not a significant predictor of therapeutic response. The 3-year overall survival rate of the patients with high soluble syndecan-1 levels at the time of diagnosis and 6 months after chemotherapy was lower than the corresponding survival rates of the patients with low levels of soluble syndecan-1; however, the overall survival rate was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The use of soluble syndecan-1 has limitations in the diagnosis of multiple myeloma. Soluble syndecan-1 levels correlate with known prognostic factors; however, we could not assess the prognostic value of high levels of soluble syndecan-1 at the time of diagnosis and after chemotherapy.
Bone Marrow ; Creatinine ; Follow-Up Studies ; Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans ; Humans ; Multiple Myeloma ; Plasma Cells ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate ; Syndecan-1

No abstract available.
Glomerular Basement Membrane* ; Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans* ; Heparitin Sulfate*

HSPG, a component of size-and charge-selective barrier of glomerular basement membrane, is one of important matrix proteins which has been known to be reduced in the kidney of diabetic patients or animals. To examine the effects of glucose and AGE on the HSPG production by cultured GEC, we cultured rat GEC on the AGE- or BSA-coated plate under normal(5mM) and high glucose.(30mM) conditions and measured the change of HSPG production by sandwich-ELISA assay and northern blot analysis at 2 days and one week incubation periods. There was no difference in proliferation between 2 different conditions of culture plate surface. We measured the relative amount of the extracted HSPC and observed significant decreases in high glucose condition at one week incubation, and particularly on the AGE-coated surface as compared to the results of BSA-coated condition, by 22% and 5%, respectively. The expression of mRNA for perlecan promoter was decreased in condition of high glucose and AGE-coated surface by 20Yo at 2 days and 61i at one week. Even in normal glucose condition, the expression of mRNA was reduced by 30Yo at one week if the plate was coated with AGE. In conclusion, both high glucose and AGE have reducing effects on the production of HSPG by GEC in vitro. Their effects seem to be additive, however, the role of AGE is greater than that of glucose, This means that the effort to inhibit AGE formation is more important than short-term glucose control for the prevention of diabetic proteinuria.
Animals ; Blotting, Northern ; Diabetic Nephropathies ; Glomerular Basement Membrane ; Glucose* ; Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans ; Heparitin Sulfate* ; Humans ; Kidney ; Proteinuria ; Rats* ; RNA, Messenger

It is well known that the glomerular basement membrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan(GBM HSPG) synthesized by glomerular epithelial cell(GEC) has an important role in the permeability of glomerular basement membrane and cyclic AMP(cAMP) is involved in regulation of a wide variety of genes maybe including GBM HSPG gene. The direct effect of cAMP on GBM HSPG gene expression and metabolism was not evaluated as yet. Proteinuria represents an impairment of permselectivity function of glomerular basement membrane regulated by GBM HSPG and could be associated with increased glomerular level of cAMP in nephrotic syndrome of diverse causes. RPD-I(rat GBM HSPG core protein domain-I) detected a >9.5kb transcript of GBM HSPG in RNA of rat GEC. Emp1oying a riboprobe synthesized from RPD-I in RNase protection assay, we examined whether cAMP regulated perlecan expression in the GEC. At l, 6, 24 and 48 hrs of incubation, l mM cAMP caused 43%, 32%, 47% and 40% reduction in mRNA expression of perlecan, respectively. Immunoprecipitation showed a corresponding reduction of 51%, 70% and 68% in the synthesis of 35SO4 labeled GBM HSPG by the GEC fol1owing l2, 24 and 48 hrs of incubation with cAMP. Our results show that decrease in GBM HSPG gene expression and synthesis by cAMP may be of relevance to proteinuric states characterized by activation of these mediators.
Animals ; Cyclic AMP* ; Epithelial Cells* ; Gene Expression ; Glomerular Basement Membrane* ; Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans* ; Heparitin Sulfate* ; Immunoprecipitation ; Metabolism ; Nephrotic Syndrome ; Permeability ; Proteinuria ; Rats* ; Ribonucleases ; RNA ; RNA, Messenger

Orientia tsutsugamushi is obligate intracellular bacterium that grows within the cytoplasm of the eukaryotic host cells. Therefore capability of the attachment, entry into the host cell and intracellular survival should be critical process for oriential infection. In this study we investigated the cellular invasion mechanism of Orientia tsutsugamushi and the role of transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan, which binds diverse components at the cellular microenvironment and is implicated as host cell receptors for a variety of microbial pathogens. First of all Orientia tsutsugamushi can invade a wide range of nonprofessional phagocytic cells including fibroblast, epithelial cells a#nd endothelial cells of various host species, including B and T lymphocytes. Thus, it was postulated that the attachment of O. tsutsugamushi requires the recognition of ubiquitous surface structures of many kinds of host cells. Treatments with heparan sulfate and heparin inhibited the infection of Orientia tsutsugamushi in dose-dependent manner for L cell, mouse fibroblast, whereas other glycosaminoglycans such as chondroitin sulfate had no effect. Collectively, these findings provide strong evidence that initial interaction with heparan sulfate proteoglycan is required for the oriential invasion into host cells.
Animals ; Cellular Microenvironment ; Chondroitin Sulfates ; Cytoplasm ; Endothelial Cells ; Epithelial Cells ; Eukaryotic Cells* ; Fibroblasts ; Glycosaminoglycans ; Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans ; Heparin ; Heparitin Sulfate ; Mice ; Orientia tsutsugamushi* ; Phagocytes ; T-Lymphocytes

PURPOSE: We describe the changes of rat glomerular epithelial cells when exposed to high levels of glucose and advanced glycosylation endproducts(AGE) in the in vitro diabetic condition. We expect morphological alteration of glomerular epithelial cells and permeability changes experimentally and we may correlate the results with a mechanism of proteinuria in DM. METHODS: We made 0.2 M glucose-6-phsphate solution mixed with PBS(pH 7.4) containing 50 mg/mL BSA and protease inhibitor for preparation of AGE. As control, we used BSA. We manufactured and symbolized five culture dishes as follows; B5 - normal glucose(5 mM) + BSA, B30 - high glucose(30 mM) + BSA, A5 - normal glucose(5 mM) + AGE, A30 - high glucose(30 mM) + AGE, A/B 25 - normal glucose(5 mM) + 25 mM of mannitol(osmotic control). After the incubation period of both two days and seven days, we measured the amount of heparan sulfate proteoglycan(HSPG) in each dish by ELISA and compared them with the B5 dish at 2nd and 7th incubation days. We observed the morphological changes of epithelial cells in each culture dish using scanning electron microscopy(SEM). We tried the permeability assay of glomerular epithelial cells using cellulose semi-permeable membrane measuring the amount of filtered BSA through the apical chamber for 2 hours by sandwich ELISA. RESULTS: On the 2nd incubation day, there was no significant difference in the amount of HSPG between the 5 culture dishes. But on the 7th incubation day, the amount of HSPG increased by 10% compared with the B5 dish on the 2nd day except the A30 dish(P<0.05). Compared with the B5 dish on the 7th day the amount of HSPG in A30 and B30 dish decreased to 77.8% and 95.3% of baseline, respectively(P>0.05). In the osmotic control group (A/B 25) no significant correlation was observed. On the SEM, we could see the separated intercellular junction and fused microvilli of glomerular epithelial cells in the culture dishes where AGE was added. The permeability of BSA increased by 19% only in the A30 dish on the 7th day compared with B5 dish on the 7th day in the permeability assay(P<0.05). CONCLUSION: We observed not only the role of a high level of glucose and AGE in decreasing the production of HSPG of glomerular epithelial cells in vitro, but also their additive effect. However, the role of AGE is greater than that of glucose. These results seems to correlate with the defects in charge selective barrier. Morphological changes of the disruption of intercellular junction and fused microvilli of glomerular epithelial cells seem to correlate with the defects in size-selective barrier. Therefore, we can explain the increased permeability of glomerular epithelial units in the in vitro diabetic condition.
Animals ; Cellulose ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Epithelial Cells ; Glucose* ; Glycosylation* ; Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans ; Heparitin Sulfate ; Intercellular Junctions ; Membranes ; Microvilli ; Permeability* ; Protease Inhibitors ; Proteinuria ; Rats

Cell therapy using stem cells has produced therapeutic benefits in animal models of COPD. Secretory mediators are proposed as one mechanism for stem cell effects because very few stem cells engraft after injection into recipient animals. Recently, nanovesicles that overcome the disadvantages of natural exosomes have been generated artificially from cells. We generated artificial nanovesicles from adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) using sequential penetration through polycarbonate membranes. ASC-derived artificial nanovesicles displayed a 100 nm-sized spherical shape similar to ASC-derived natural exosomes and expressed both exosomal and stem cell markers. The proliferation rate of lung epithelial cells was increased in cells treated with ASC-derived artificial nanovesicles compared with cells treated with ASC-derived natural exosomes. The lower dose of ASC-derived artificial nanovesicles had similar regenerative capacity compared with a higher dose of ASCs and ASC-derived natural exosomes. In addition, FGF2 levels in the lungs of mice treated with ASC-derived artificial nanovesicles were increased. The uptake of ASC-derived artificial nanovesicles was inhibited by heparin, which is a competitive inhibitor of heparan sulfate proteoglycan that is associated with FGF2 signaling. Taken together, the data indicate that lower doses of ASC-derived artificial nanovesicles may have beneficial effects similar to higher doses of ASCs or ASC-derived natural exosomes in an animal model with emphysema, suggesting that artificial nanovesicles may have economic advantages that warrant future clinical studies.
Animals ; Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy ; Emphysema* ; Epithelial Cells ; Exosomes ; Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 ; Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans ; Heparin ; Lung ; Membranes ; Mice ; Models, Animal ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; Stem Cells

Laminins, a subset of glycoproteins, are main components of the basement membrane along with fibronectin, type IV collagen, and heparan sulfate proteoglycan and influence the biologic features, such as growth and polarization, of all tissues attached on the basement membrane. Although evidence has been suggested that laminins are involved in the process of hair follicle formation in mammalian skin tissues, the significance of laminin on the physiology of hair follicles remains to be fully understood. In this study, we assessed whether the distribution of laminin is associated with the growth of hair follicles and whether all-trans retinoic acid (RA), a stimulus of hair follicle growth, affects the expression profile of laminins. To observe the distribution of laminin varied depending on the developmental stages, fetuses(at day 20 of gestation) and pups(at day 1 and 3 after birth) of Sprague- Dawley rats were used. To examine the effect of RA, 5 days-old pups were administered with RA and their skin tissues were removed post mortem 2, 4, or 7 days later. Skin specimens were sectioned and observed using the immunohistochemical staining, immunogold staining for electron microscopy, and in situ RT-PCR assays. In fetuses at day 20 of gestation and 1 and 3-days-old pups, the distribution of laminin within hair follicles was restricted in the cytoplasm of fibroblasts located in hair papilla and dermal root sheath, basement membrane, and glassy membrane. Following RA treatment for 2 and 4 days, laminin expression was increased in the basement membrane, glassy membrane, outer root sheath, and dermal root sheath in hair follicles. Following RA treatment for 2 and 4 days, the level of laminin was increased in fibroblasts and matrix cells present in hair follicles, as shown in immunogold staining. The expression of laminin at day 7 post administration with RA was decreased at the level comparable with that of untreated controls. In in situ RT-PCR assays, matrix cells in hair follicles exhibited an increase in the levels of laminin alpha1 and beta1 transcripts following RA administration. Thus, these results suggest that matrix cells play a role in the growth of hair by enhancing laminin gene expression and all-trans retinoic acid promotes this induction.
Animals ; Basement Membrane ; Collagen Type IV ; Cytoplasm ; Fetus ; Fibroblasts ; Fibronectins ; Gene Expression ; Glycoproteins ; Hair Follicle* ; Hair* ; Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans ; Laminin* ; Membranes ; Microscopy, Electron ; Physiology ; Pregnancy ; Rats* ; Skin ; Tretinoin*

PURPOSE: Minimal Change Disease (MCD) is the most common primary nephrotic syndrome in children. Some suggested that tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) are involved in the pathogenesis of MCD. METHODS: This study was done to see the changes of plasma and urinary TNF-alpha, and its effect on the determination of permeability of the glomerular basement membrane (BM) contributed by heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG). Study patients consisted of 19 biopsy-proven MCD children aged 2-15 years old. Both plasma and urinary TNF-alpha were measured. Employing the Millicell system, TNF-alpha was screened for the permeability factors. We examined whether TNF-alpha regulated BM HSPG gene expression and HS synthesis in the glomerular epithelial cells (GECs). RESULTS: Urinary TNF-alpha during relapse was significantly increased when compared with that of during remission or controls (364.4+/-51.2 vs 155.3+/-20.8, 36.0+/-4.5 ng/mg cr) (P< 0.05). However, negative results were obtained in the permeability assay using the Millicell system. No difference was seen in the BM HSPG gene expression and HS synthesis in the GECs. CONCLUSION: It seems that TNF-alpha may not play a disease-specific role in the pathogenesis of MCD.
Child ; Epithelial Cells* ; Gene Expression ; Glomerular Basement Membrane ; Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans ; Humans ; Nephrosis, Lipoid ; Nephrotic Syndrome ; Permeability* ; Plasma ; Recurrence ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*