1983 Volume 74 Issue 1 Pages 39-45
In order to find if carcinomas of the urinary tract should influence the pattern of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) excretion in urine, daily urinary GAG was measured in patients with renal cell carcinoma, bladder carcinoma and prostatic carcinoma, and the result was compared with that of normal adults. Significantly higher levels of urinary GAG were noted in patients with bladder carcinoma and renal cell carrcinoma, whereas in patients with prostatic carcinoma the level was not significantly different from that of normal adults. The urinary GAG distribution pattern examined by two-dimensional electrophoresis did not coincide with that of tissue GAG isolated from renal cell carcinoma. However, in bladder carcinoma, urinary GAG distribution pattern resembled that of tissue GAG isolated from bladder carcinoma; there was prominently large amount of hyaluronic acid both in urine and cancer tissue from the patients with bladder carcinoma. Histochemical study by colloid iron stain demonstrated the presence of GAG in the cytoplasm of the malignant urothelial cells. From these observations, it was suggested that the measurement and demonstration of hyaluronic acid in urine may be of value and used as a marker of bladder carcinoma.
