Hyaluronidase activity and glycosaminoglycan synthesis in the amputated newt limb: comparison of denervated, nonregenerating limbs with regenerates.

Amputated, regenerating forelimbs have been compared with the contralateral, denervated non-regenerating limb stumps in the adult newt Notophthalmus viridescens, with respect to hyaluronidase activity and the incorporation of ³H-acetate into glycosaminoglycans (GAG). At 10 days after amputation, which is the time of maximum hyaluronate production in the early growing regenerate, incorporation of ³H-acetate into GAG (cpm/mg protein) in the denervated, nonregenerating limb stump was approximately 50% of that in the contralateral regenerating limbs. At this stage, hyaluronate was the major GAG being produced, but the ratio of incorporation into hyaluronate relative to chondroitin sulfate was reduced in the denervated limbs. In intact, nonamputated limbs, the incorporation into GAG was 5% of that in the regenerating limb 10 days after amputation, and 10% of that in the denervated stumps.At 25 days, cartilage is forming and chondroitin sulfate synthesis predominates in the normal regenerate whilst the contralateral, denervated limb stumps are forming scars. GAG synthesis in the latter was less than one-quarter the level seen in the regenerating limbs, mostly due to low incorporation into chondroitin sulfate.Hyaluronidase activity, which appears in the regenerating limb during differentiation of skeletal elements (20–45 days), was not detectable in limbs denervated early enough to prevent regeneration. However, limbs denervated after formation of the blastema will regenerate without nerve, and hyaluronidase activity in such limbs was normal. Thus, hyaluronidase activity appears when regeneration reaches the cartilage deposition stage, with or without nerve.