Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are linear, highly negatively charged polysaccharide chains that regulate a wide variety of signaling pathways in the body, including those governing cell growth, development, vascularization, and adhesion � all aspects central to the growth and metastasis of cancer.  Here, GAG chains were isolated and characterized from cancerous and normal breast tissue taken from six patients with lethal and non-lethal cancer and their properties were compared across the different tissue types.  Analysis of the GAG chain length showed that cancerous tissues produced GAGs with longer average chain lengths and that lethal, highly metastatic cancer produced nearly twice the GAG content per tissue weight when compared with all other tissues.  Digestion and analysis of the disccharide content of the isolated GAG chains also revealed changes in their sulfation pattern, suggesting that the metabolic pathways that govern GAG construction change in cancerous tissue.  Significant changes were also found to exist between the tissues from patients with lethal cancer and those with cancer that was successfully treated.  While based off of a limited sample size, this data suggests that there may be innate variation in the body's construction and composition of GAG chains which facilitate the metastasis of tumors in some patients. Ongoing work in structural  analysis of GAGs isolated from other forms of cancer is expected to help  shape our understanding of metabolic changes in GAG construction in  cancer.

Structural analysis of glycosaminoglycans in breast cancer tissue

244th National Meeting (2012)

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