Development of a Simple Extraction Method for Proteoglycans

Abstract

Proteoglycans are complex glycoconjugates consisting of one or more glycosaminoglycan chains that are covalently attached to a core protein. Research on glycosaminoglycan chains and proteoglycans can be traced back to the early 20th century. There have been many reports on the extraction of proteoglycans from animal cartilage tissues, and the structures of proteoglycans have previously been elucidated. Proteoglycans in cartilage are called aggrecan. They consist of a core protein with many attached glycosaminoglycan chains. Recently, several new simple methods have been developed for the extraction of large amounts of aggrecan. This study focuses on the development of simple extraction methods for proteoglycans and introduces one of the simple extraction methods that I have developed: the extraction of proteoglycans using umezu (a byproduct of the pickling process for the mume fruit).