Skip to main content
PMC home page
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases logoLink to Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
. 1985 Dec;44(12):817–822. doi: 10.1136/ard.44.12.817

Concentration and molecular weight of sodium hyaluronate in synovial fluid from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other arthropathies.

L B Dahl, I M Dahl, A Engström-Laurent, K Granath
PMCID: PMC1001790  PMID: 4083937

Abstract

The molecular weight distribution of hyaluronate (HA) in synovial fluid (SF) from 10 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), from six patients with other joint disorders, and from five recently deceased persons without joint affections was investigated by a gel chromatographic procedure. A new and highly specific radioassay was used for determination of the HA concentration in the effluent from the chromatographic column, and this allowed analyses on 0.5 ml or less of untreated synovial fluid. The results confirmed the findings by others that the weight-average molecular weight (Mw) of HA in SF from patients with RA (4.8 X 10(6)) was similar to that in other joint diseases (5.0 X 10(6)) and moderately but significantly (p less than 0.001) lower than that of normal SF (7.0 X 10(6)). Furthermore, the molecular weight distribution of HA in the pathological SF was generally broad and varied considerably between individuals. The HA concentration in the pathological SF varied between 0.17 and 1.32 g/l, which is in accordance with previous reports and considerably lower than that of normal SF. Neither the nature of the arthropathy and the extent of the inflammatory process nor the pharmacological treatment had a tendency to influence the HA concentration in the SF, the mean molecular weight of HA, or its molecular weight distribution. Although the concentration of HA in SF drops in joint disease, the total amount of the polysaccharide is greatly enhanced. Also the amount of high molecular weight polysaccharide (Mw greater than 6 X 10(6)) is in excess in joint disease. The pathological state is therefore characterised not by lack of high molecular weight hyaluronate but by a dilution of it.

Full text

PDF
817

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Asheim A., Lindblad G. Intra-articular treatment of arthritis in race-horses with sodium hyaluronate. Acta Vet Scand. 1976;17(4):379–394. doi: 10.1186/BF03547893. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. BARKER S. A., BAYYUK S. H., BRIMACOMBE J. S., HAWKINS C. F., STACEY M. FINGERPRINTING THE HYALURONIC ACID COMPONENT OF NORMAL AND PATHOLOGICAL SYNOVIAL FLUIDS. Clin Chim Acta. 1963 Nov;8:902–909. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(63)90013-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Balazs E. A., Watson D., Duff I. F., Roseman S. Hyaluronic acid in synovial fluid. I. Molecular parameters of hyaluronic acid in normal and arthritis human fluids. Arthritis Rheum. 1967 Aug;10(4):357–376. doi: 10.1002/art.1780100407. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bjelle A., Andersson T., Granath K. Molecular weight distribution of hyaluronic acid of human synovial fluid in rheumatic diseases. Scand J Rheumatol. 1983;12(2):133–138. doi: 10.3109/03009748309102899. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Butler J., Rydell N. W., Balazs E. A. Hyaluronic acid in synovial fluid. VI. Effect of intra-articular injection of hyaluronic acid on the clinical symptoms of arthritis in track horses. Acta Vet Scand. 1970;11(2):139–155. doi: 10.1186/BF03547976. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gibbs D. A., Merrill E. W., Smith K. A., Balazs E. A. Rheology of hyaluronic acid. Biopolymers. 1968 Jun;6(6):777–791. doi: 10.1002/bip.1968.360060603. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Laurent U. B., Granath K. A. The molecular weight of hyaluronate in the aqueous humour and vitreous body of rabbit and cattle eyes. Exp Eye Res. 1983 Apr;36(4):481–492. doi: 10.1016/0014-4835(83)90042-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Laurent U. B., Tengblad A. Determination of hyaluronate in biological samples by a specific radioassay technique. Anal Biochem. 1980 Dec;109(2):386–394. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(80)90665-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. NANTO V., SEPPALA P., KULONEN E. Effect of hydrocortisone administration on the hyaluronic acid fractions of synovial fluid in rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Chim Acta. 1962 Nov;7:794–799. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(62)90061-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Peyron J. G., Balazs E. A. Preliminary clinical assessment of Na-hyaluronate injection into human arthritic joints. Pathol Biol (Paris) 1974 Oct;22(8):731–736. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. ROPES M. W., BENNETT G. A., COBB S., JACOX R., JESSAR R. A. 1958 Revision of diagnostic criteria for rheumatoid arthritis. Bull Rheum Dis. 1958 Dec;9(4):175–176. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Tengblad A. Affinity chromatography on immobilized hyaluronate and its application to the isolation of hyaluronate binding properties from cartilage. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1979 Jun 19;578(2):281–289. doi: 10.1016/0005-2795(79)90158-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Tengblad A. Quantitative analysis of hyaluronate in nanogram amounts. Biochem J. 1980 Jan 1;185(1):101–105. doi: 10.1042/bj1850101. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Wigren A., Falk J., Wik O. The healing of cartilage injuries under the influence of joint immobilization and repeated hyaluronic acid injections. An experimental study. Acta Orthop Scand. 1978 Apr;49(2):121–133. doi: 10.3109/17453677809005737. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES