Age-dependent constitutional change in acidic glycosaminoglycans in human esophagus.

The age-dependent constituents of esophageal acidic glycosaminoglycans (AGAG) were studied using 35 healthy individuals by electrophoretic characterization and enzymic assay with specific chondroitinases and hyaluronidase. Human esophageal AGAG comprised hyaluronic acid, dermatan sulfate, heparan sulfate and chondroitin 4- and 6-sulfate and oversulfated dermatan sulfate. Hyaluronic acid was the major part of AGAG at the young age but it decreased definitely with the advance of age. The proportion of dermatan sulfate and the oversulfated isomer to total AGAG significantly increased until adult age and then tended to somewhat decrease with increasing age. The proportion of heparan sulfate consistently increased with the advance of age.