ABSTRACT
Chondroitin sulfate and hyaluronan are members of the glycosaminoglycan family with similar chemical structures, but otherwise they have very different histories, properties, and modes of biosynthesis. Chondroitin sulfate is present in living tissues covalently bound to proteins to form proteoglycans such as aggrecan (see Chap. 14), whereas hyaluronan is present without a core protein and hence is a true glycosaminoglycan. This chapter focuses on the structure and biosynthesis of these glycosaminoglycans, while other chapters focus on their biological properties (Chaps. 4 and 14).
