Glycosaminoglycan patterns in diabetic and toxemic term placentas.

Crude glycosaminoglycans were prepared from acetone powder of diabetic, toxemic, and normal term placentas. Glycosaminoglycan composition was determined by electrophoresis and densitometric scanning with and without treatment with testicular hyaluronidase and chondroitinase ABC. The identity of individual glycosaminoglycans was confirmed by the nature of their hexosamine. Glycosaminoglycan content was found to be significantly increased in diabetic placentas and increased to a lesser degree in the toxemic placentas. The amount of hyaluronic acid was elevated in both abnormal tissues, and heparan sulfate was slightly higher in diabetes, while unchanged in toxemia. Dermatan sulfate was markedly reduced in the abnormal placentas while chondroitin 4/6 sulfate was unaltered. An attempt was made to correlate the histopathologic changes reported to occur in these conditions with the alterations in the glycosaminoglycans patterns of placentas.