抄録
Although the etiology of atherosclerosis remains obscure, acid mucopolysaccharides (AMPS, glycosaminoglycans) have been assumed to play an important role to precipitate the plasma lipoprotein in the arterial wall. Furthermore, in many tissues besides artery, focal deposits of cholesterol have been demonstrated to be associated with AMPS.
Since AMPS is rich in the renal papilla and administration of papain has been reported to liberate AMPS from various connective tissues, the effect of papain on the renal papillary AMPS and the associated change in total cholesterol content have been evaluated.
Male Wister rats weighing 200-250g were injected intraperitoneally with 1-3mg/0.1kg body weight of a papain solution. After 24hrs, the kidneys were obtained and analysed for AMPS and total cholesterol of the papillary region. Insoluble collagen was employed as reference base.
Significant decrease in AMPS and the rather large loss of cholesterol have been observed by papain treatment. However, there has been no dose dependency in the effect of papain concentrations used in this study.
Analysis of AMPS composition revealed a marked decrease in the hyaluronic acid fraction, but all other fractions, i. e., heparan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate A/C and dermatan sulfate were also decreased.
These results suggest that changes in AMPS content and composition of renal papilla may affect the binding capacity of lipoprotein, resulting decreased concentration of cholesterol in this region.
