The incorporation of [3H]acetate into chondroitin sulphate was used as a measure of the rate of synthesis of this polysaccharide in whole tibias and femurs of embryonic chicken cartilage in vitro. The incorporation is inhibited by puromycin and by cycloheximide, but the inhibition is relieved by the addition of D-xylose, xβ-D-xylosides and β-D-galactosides to the incubation medium. β-D-Xylosides can stimulate the incorporation to 300% of that of controls incubated in the absence of cycloheximide or puromycin, D-Xylose, β-D-xylosides and β-D-galactosides appear to act as artificial initiators of chondroitin sulphate synthesis and enable polysaccharide-chain synthesis to be studied as an event separate from the synthesis of intact proteoglycan.
