Quantitation of uronic acid precipitable by cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) and electrophoretic separation of glycosaminoglycans were performed on sera from patients with chronic renal failure and compared to normal controls. Serum CPC-precipitable uronic acid (CpUA) levels in patients with renal failure were significantly higher (mean 13·7 mg/L, range 7·1–23·6 mg/L) than normal controls (mean 9·6 mg/L, range 5·1–13·9 mg/L) due to increased concentrations of low sulphated chondroitin sulphate. A positive correlation between serum CpUA and creatinine was found in renal failure patients.
Urine CpUA excretion was raised in renal failure patients compared to normal controls with an increased excretion of chondroitin sulphate (Ch-S) of reduced electrophoretic mobility. Heparan sulphate (HS), a major glycosaminoglycan in normal urine, was absent from the urine of these patients.
The possible origin of urine glycosaminoglycans and the role of the kidney in glycosaminoglycan metabolism are discussed.
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