Study on the Hyaluronic Acid‐Protein Complex, the Molecular Size of Hyaluronic Acid and the Exchangeability of Chloride in Skin of Mice before and after Oestrogen Treatment

Hyaluronic acid (HA)‐protein complex was extracted with 0.2 M‐NaCl from homogenized skin of the back of mice. The complex was separated from unrelated proteins by ethanol precipitation followed by three times chromatography on CM‐Sephadex columns. The composition of the complex isolated from mice treated with oestradiol differed significantly from the complex of the control mice, the ratio HA/protein was 3.5 times higher in the former than in the latter. The molecular sizes of the HA from the two samples were compared by means of gel filtration on Sepharose 2B column. Apart from a high molecular fraction containing 4 % of the HA from mice treated with oestradiol no difference was found between the elution patterns. The exchangeability of the chloride in the skin of control mice and mice treated with oestradiol was studied by means of the isotope dilution method. No significant difference was found between the two groups of mice.