ABSTRACT

The lung is a complex organ consisting of multiple cell and tissue types, and one therefore expects many proteoglycans to be present. Unfortunately, the complement of lung proteoglycans has not been fully characterized and it is not possible to produce a definitive list of which proteoglycans are present. This review presents a description of those proteoglycans known to be present in the lung and those expected to be present, and provides information on their structure, heterogeneity, and probable function.