alcian-blue and Kidney-Calculi

A method was developed for the determination of urinary chondroitin sulphate (CS), including dermatan sulphate and chondroitin 4 and 6-sulphates, using an enzymatic degradation with chondroitinase-ABC followed by precipitation with Alcian blue, whereby CS was determined as the difference between undigested and chondroitinase digested material. The method was linear in the range 0-100 mg l-1 with a detection limit of 1 mg l-1 and allowed determinations on small urine volumes without pretreatment of the urine. It could be demonstrated that males excreted more CS than females, and growing children had the highest urinary content of CS. Renal calcium stone formers did not differ from healthy controls in urinary CS. Patients with acromegaly had a higher excretion of CS compared with controls. There was also, in these patients, a positive correlation between the serum growth hormone levels and the urinary CS, indicating that CS-excretion may be an estimate of the activity of the pituitary disorder.

Topics: Acromegaly; Alcian Blue; Chemical Precipitation; Chondroitin; Chondroitin Sulfates; Dermatan Sulfate; Female; Heparin; Humans; Kidney Calculi; Male; Pentosan Sulfuric Polyester

Differences in calcium oxalate crystal growth inhibition were studied in normally voided urine (bladder urine) and in urine collected directly from the kidney (kidney urine) in nine dogs. Urine samples were collected before and 10 days after bilateral ureterostomies. Calcium oxalate crystal growth inhibition was measured in a standard seeded crystal growth system. The alcian blue-precipitable material of the urine samples was determined. Significantly lower values were observed in kidney urine than in bladder urine for calcium oxalate crystal inhibition (mean difference, 0.07 +/- 0.02 inhibitor units/mg creatinine; P less than 0.01) and for the alcian blue-precipitable material (mean difference, 0.07 +/- 0.02 mg/mg creatinine; P less than 0.01). We conclude that the bladder adds calcium oxalate crystal growth inhibition to urine. Glycosaminoglycans from the bladder mucosa may be responsible; however, other acidic polymers such as RNA fragments or glycopeptides have been shown to be a constituent of the alcian blue-precipitable material. These are potent inhibitors of calcium oxalate crystal growth, and their participation in the increase of inhibition observed in bladder urine cannot be excluded. Total calcium oxalate crystal growth inhibition present in normally voided urine may be an overestimation of the actual inhibition present at the level of the kidney, where calculi usually form.

Topics: Alcian Blue; Animals; Calcium Oxalate; Crystallization; Dogs; Female; Kidney; Kidney Calculi; Urinary Bladder; Urinary Bladder Calculi