Characterization of small leucine-rich proteoglycans in aortic valves of patients with aortic valve stenosis

We previously reported aberrant glycosylation of lumican, one of small leucine-rich proteoglycans (SLRPs), in aortic valves in patients with aortic valve stenosis (AS).Extending the study, we here characterized other SLRPs of proline/arginine-rich end leucine-rich repeat protein (PRELP), decorin, and biglycan in AS valves.Specifically, thickened and calcified (AS-C) areas and apparently non-thickened and non-calcified (AS-N) areas of aortic valves were sampled in 8 patients with AS.Then amounts of three molecules with or without removal of N-glycosylation by PGNase were compared between the AS-C and AS-N areas.As a result, the amounts of PRELP with moderate and/or low amounts of N-glycosylation were found decreased in the AS-C areas compared to the AS-N areas.The amounts of decorin with both glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and N-linked oligosaccharides were decreased in the AS-C area compared to the AS-N area.Moreover, the amounts of biglycan with GAG and N-linked oligosaccharides were decreased, instead, the amounts of biglycan without GAG were increased in the AS-C areas compared to AS-N areas.These quantitative and qualitative changes of the three SLRPs detected here may be involved in the progression of AS changes of aortic valves. Methods Patients and clinical samplesNine patients with AS were enrolled in this study.Aortic valve samples were obtained during therapeutic aortic valve replacement for AS.All the samples were obtained with written informed consent.This study was approved by the institutional ethics committee of St. Marianna University School of Medicine.One of the 9 AS valve leaflets was used for photographic presentation in Figure 1.The remaining 8 leaflets were subjected to analyses (Three males and five females, average 68.8 years old, range 43-80 years old ) Six out of the 8 samples were identical with those used in our previous study [10].