The relationship between the dermal content and the 24-hour excretion of analytically identical glycosaminoglycans in humans.

Using a material consisting of related dermal specimens and 24-h urine samples from 17 psoriatics and 20 non-psoriatics it has been shown for the first time that the excretion of dermatan sulphate and a fraction of chondroitinase ABC resistant GAG ('heparan sulphate') are positively associated with the tissue content of the analytically identical glycosaminoglycans in dermis. The excretion of chondroitin 4/6 sulphate, total hydroxyproline and a peptide-bound fraction of this does not, however, mirror the tissue content of the corresponding constituents in dermis. There was no difference in the type of association between tissue and urine measurements in psoriatics and non-psoriatics. The results were analysed using multiple regression to avoid the unwanted effect of diverse concomitant variables (6 variables).