The
glycosaminoglycans are implicated in many processes important in the growth and progression of malignant
tumors. In the present study
glycosaminoglycans were purified from healthy, macroscopically normal and cancerous specimens of different anatomic sites and different stages of
cancer and analyzed by FACE after
chondroitinases and
sulfatases digestion. The cancerous samples contained increased levels of 6-sulfated unsaturated
disaccharides compared to macroscopically normal and healthy samples, the increase being stage-related. The differences in sulfation were found to be related to the anatomic site and the stage of
cancer. RT-PCR analysis of 4-sulfotransferase
mRNA revealed its presence in decreasing amounts as the stage of the
cancer increased. Furthermore, the percent content of
hyaluronan disaccharides was elevated in macroscopically normal samples compared to the cancerous, and in addition, it was much more elevated than that of healthy samples. Haluronan levels increase with stage in cancerous tissues. Therefore, it could be concluded that the
glycosaminoglycans in
colorectal cancer are biosynthetically directed to contribute in different ways depending on the
cancer stage and anatomical site.