WP5395 - Glycosaminoglycan synthesis in fibroblasts - Homo sapiens

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are key components of the extracellular matrix secreted by fibroblasts. This pathway shows the metabolic reactions necessary to synthesize three types of GAGs, namely chondroitin sulfate, dermatan sulfate and heparan sulfate. The synthesis takes place in the Golgi apparatus and begins with UDP-α-D-xylose. After this molecule is converted to 3-β-D-glucosyluronate-3-β-D-galactosyl-4-β-D-galactosyl-O-β-D-xylosyl-[protein] via three metabolic reactions, the pathway separates into two branches. One of them leads to the synthesis of chondroitin sulfate and dermatan (di)sulfate, while the other ends with heparan mono-, bi- or trisulfate. Some of the reactions are catalyzed by unknown enzymes that should be researched in the future.
This pathway was created based on the information from the pathways found in MetaCyc and HumanCyc databases (see Bibliography). As some of the metabolites do not have identifiers in databases supported by PathVisio (such as ChEBI or KEGG), their MetaNetX IDs were added in the comments.