1977 Volume 81 Issue 1 Pages 79-91
Hyaluronic acid was prepared from adult rabbit skin. Defatted skin powder suspended in 0.5M NaCl was homogenized, and total glycosaminoglycans were precipitated from this 0, 5 M NaC1 extract with cetylpyridinium chloride, then redissolved successively with increasing concentrations of NaCl and finally 0.5N NaOH. Hyaluronic acid, the major acid glycosami-noglycan in the 0.5M NaCl extract, was purified and fractionated by DEAE-Sephadex chro-matography. The molecular weights ranged from 1×104 to 7.2×104.
Alternatively, hyaluronic acid was obtained from adult rabbit skin without mechanical powdering and homogenizing. Defatted skin pieces were suspended in water and heated at 100°, then the extract was digested with pronase followed by DNase [EC 3. 1. 4. 5]. Glyco-saminoglycans were excluded in gel filtration with Sephadex G-75. Hyaluronic acid and dermatan sulfate, the two major glycosaminoglycans of this tissue, were separated by gel chromatography on Sepharose 4B. The molecular weight of this hyaluronic acid ranged from 1.6×105to 1.3×106.
Yields of hyaluronic acid by these two methods were similar. Hyaluronic acid was prob-ably degraded by the mechanical treatments in the first method. Other factors affecting the viscosity of the tissue extract were examined.