Polysaccharides in Normal and Pathologic Corneas

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden.
² Recipient of a Research Fellowship from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation.

A quantitative method has been developed for the isolation and fractionation of corneal polysaccharides from small tissue samples. Keratan sulfate is molecular weight fractionated and the galactosamine-containing polysaccharides (intermediates between chondroitin and chondroitin- 4-sulfate) fractionated on the basis of their sulfate content. Although there is a somewhat lower concentration of the more highly sulfated galactosaminoglycans in the anterior part of the stroma, there is otherwise no significant difference in the quantitative chemical or physicochemical properties of the polysaccharides in the various parts of the corneal stroma. The chemical composition and physicochemical properties of the glucosaminoglycans and. galactosaminoglycans present in early embryonic life differ from those found in adult corneal stroma. A decrease in both glucosaminoglycans and galactosaminoglycans has been demonstrated in the healing area of perforating corneal wounds. The principal polysaccharide constituent of scar tissue seems to be chondroitin stlfate.