Isolation and electrophoretic analysis of human serum proteoglycans and their reaction with nickel in vitro.

Human serum proteoglycans were isolated from random serum samples from healthy blood donors by cetylpyridinium chloride precipitation technique. Their concentration (14 +/- 6 mg/l +/- S.D.) corresponded to that of other mammals. Electrophoretic separation on polyacrylamide gel with a subsequent staining for glycans revealed four major bands from 175 to 80 kDa. Incubation in vitro with 0.1, 0.2 or 0.5 mM NiCl2 for 1 h caused a loss of glycan chains according to the nickel concentration. In the electrophoretic analysis, all proteoglycan bands diminished due to the incubation with the nickel salt. It seems that this approach could be used as a model for effects of chemicals on the proteoglycan metabolism.