Glycosaminoglycan in malignant pleural mesothelioma.

The quantitative analysis on glycosaminoglycan (GAG) in the tumor tissues of five patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma and in the pleural fluid of two patients was performed with the use of biochemical methods. In the tumor tissues, it was found that the average of the total amount of GAG was more than 7.9 times as high as that in adenocarcinoma of the lung, and that hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate were main constituents of mesothelioma GAG. However, there was no significant difference in the content of dermatan sulfate and heparan sulfate between this neoplasm and adenocarcinoma. In the pleural fluid, the amount of hyaluronic acid was about 40 to 230 times higher than that in adenocarcinoma of the lung with the increment of chondroitin sulfate (11-87 times). These findings suggest that a marked increase in the total amount of GAG and the elevation of either the hyaluronic acid or the chondroitin sulfate level, or both, are characteristic abnormalities in malignant pleural mesothelioma.