Periodic Acid-Schiff Reactive Components of Human Gingiva

¹ Department of Physiology, Dental Faculty, University of Oslo, Norway

An extraction method has been developed which permitted the isolation from human gingiva of two polysaccharide-protein complexes with different electrophoretic mobilities. Both complexes reacted with the periodic acid-Schiff procedure as employed in the experiments, whereas neither hyaluronate nor chondroitin sulfate stained.

The polysaccharide moiety of one of the complexes was found to contain glucuronic acid, glucosamine, galactose, glucose, mannose, and ribose and, in addition, a component tentatively described as a heptose. This heteropolysaccharide was associated with a protein containing hydroxyproline. It was suggested that the protein part of the complex was a soluble collagen and that the complex as a whole may represent some stage in the synthesis of collagenous fibers.

The polysaccharide part of the second complex contained glucuronic acid, glucosamine, galactose, glucose, mannose, ribose, and possibly fucose. The nature of the protein apparently associated with this heteropolysaccharide has not yet been established.