Age-dependent change in the gel-electrophoretic pattern of proteoglycans of human growth cartilage.

The gel-electrophoretic pattern of dissociated proteoglycans was studied in 7 fetuses, 5 premature newborns, 4 term newborns, 5 infants and 5 children. The tibial growth cartilage was extracted with 4 M guanidinium chloride. After dialysis against 8 M urea at pH 7 the proteoglycans were obtained by ion chromatography in urea on DEAE cellulose and submitted to gel electrophoresis on polyacrylamide agarose gels. Gel electrophoresis of proteoglycans showed a different pattern in fetuses from that found in children. The change occurs in the first months of extrauterine life.