MUCOPOLYSACCHARIDE CONTENT OF SKIN IN PATIENTS WITH PRETIBIAL MYXEDEMA*†

Abstract

A chemical assay of the skin of 6 patients with "localized" pretibial myxedema was made. All patients had exophthalmos and were euthyroid at the time the skin biopsies were made. Biopsies were made of the clinically involved skin of the shin and of clinically uninvolved skin of the upper leg and the deltoid area. The acid mucopolysaccharide concentration of these skin specimens was compared with the concentration found in the leg skin biopsies obtained during orthopedic operations on 8 comparable individuals who had never had thyroid disease. The mean value for acid mucopolysaccharide concentration in the clinically myxedematous pretibial skin was 990 [mu]g of uronic acid per 100 mg of tissue using the carbazole method, and 753 [mu]g using orcinol. The mean values for the clinically uninvolved areas of skin from the same individuals were 171 and 146 [mu]g/100 mg of tissue, respectively. The latter values are higher than the mean values found in the normal skin of 8 individuals without thyroid disease, which were 89 and 98 [mu]g/100 mg, respectively. Higher acid mucopolysaccharide values found in pretibial myxedema were associated with a higher mean ration of carbazole to orcinol values.