Renato Iozzo and an authoritative team of investigators present for the first time a comprehensive and up-to-date collection of readily reproducible preparative and analytical methods for the in-depth analysis of these important compounds. Featuring step-by-step protocols, this book will enable both novice and experienced researchers to isolate intact proteoglycans from tissues and cultured cells, to establish the composition of their carbohydrate moieties, and to generate strategies for prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression. There are also detailed techniques for the suppression of specific proteoglycan genes, for the detection of mutant cells and their degradation products, and for studying specific interactions between proteoglycans and extracellular matrix proteins and with growth factors and their receptors.