The molecular weight distribution of the chondroitin sulfates of bovine and whale nasal septum.

Chondroitin sulfates were quantitatively extracted from bovine and whale nasal septum without indiscriminate depolymerization by treatment with 0.5 M sodium hydroxide containing 0.26 M sodium borohydride at 3-5•Ž for 10 days. The reducing-end xylitol of the glyco saminoglycans was accurately determined by a microchemical method which had been developed for the separation and determination of the reducing-end alditols of reduced polysaccharides with high molecular weight (Yamaguchi, H., Inamura, S., & Makino, K. (1976) J. Biochem. 79,299-303; Yamaguchi, H. & Makino, K. (1977) J. Biochem. 81,563-569). The xylitol propor tion of each glycosaminoglycan was in fair agreement with the xylose proportion of the cor responding chondroitin sulfate prepared by proteolytic digestion, suggesting that the xylose residues of the chondroitin sulfate chains are all situated in the reducing-end position and are