Department of Life Sciences, Laboratory of Biochemistry and Glycobiology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41125 Modena, Italy.
Molecules. 2019 Apr 12;24(8):1447. doi: 10.3390/molecules24081447.
The industrial production of chondroitin sulfate (CS) uses animal tissue sources as raw material derived from different terrestrial or marine species of animals. CS possesses a heterogeneous structure and physical-chemical profile in different species and tissues, responsible for the various and more specialized functions of these macromolecules. Moreover, mixes of different animal tissues and sources are possible, producing a CS final product having varied characteristics and not well identified profile, influencing oral absorption and activity. Finally, different extraction and purification processes may introduce further modifications of the CS structural characteristics and properties and may lead to extracts having a variable grade of purity, limited biological effects, presence of contaminants causing problems of safety and reproducibility along with not surely identified origin. These aspects pose a serious problem for the final consumers of the pharmaceutical or nutraceutical products mainly related to the traceability of CS and to the declaration of the real origin of the active ingredient and its content. In this review, specific, sensitive and validated analytical quality controls such as electrophoresis, eHPLC (enzymatic HPLC) and HPSEC (high-performance size-exclusion chromatography) able to assure CS quality and origin are illustrated and discussed.
硫酸软骨素（CS）的工业生产使用动物组织作为原料，来源于不同的陆地或海洋动物物种。CS 在不同物种和组织中具有异质的结构和理化特性，这是这些大分子具有各种更专业化功能的原因。此外，不同动物组织和来源的混合是可能的，从而产生具有不同特性且特征不明确的 CS 最终产品，这会影响口服吸收和活性。最后，不同的提取和纯化过程可能会进一步改变 CS 的结构特征和性质，并可能导致提取物具有不同纯度等级、有限的生物学效应、存在可能导致安全性和重现性问题的污染物，以及不确定的来源。这些方面给医药或营养保健品的最终消费者带来了严重的问题，主要涉及 CS 的可追溯性以及活性成分的真实来源及其含量的声明。在这篇综述中，我们阐述和讨论了电泳、eHPLC（酶 HPLC）和 HPSEC（高效体积排阻色谱）等特定、敏感和经过验证的分析质量控制方法，这些方法能够确保 CS 的质量和来源。
