Isolation of UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase from quail oviduct and its action on chondroitin sulfate.

A sulfatase, which liberates sulfate from UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate (the nucleotide occurring in quail egg white at high concentration), has been isolated from quail oviduct. The tissue also contained sulfatase activities for UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine-4-sulfate and nitrocatechol sulfate but these activities were removed from the 6-sulfatase fraction during purification. The UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase appears to be very closely related to a sulfatase activity for the non-reducing N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate end group in chondroitin sulfate, $\text{i.}\text{e.}$ the two activities could not be separated from each other by various fractionation procedures and were affected in a parallel fashion by mild heating. The results, coupled with those of earlier studies on UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine-4-sulfate in hen oviduct, suggest that in avian oviducts a sulfation/desulfation system may exist wherein sulfated sugar nucleotides and sulfated glycosaminoglycans are involved as alternative or competitive substrates.