Relationship between eggshell strength and keratan sulfate of eggshell membranes

Eggshell strength is an important factor in an effort to minimize eggshell breakage, which is a significant problem in the egg production industry. In the current study, we isolated and quantified the specific glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) from the calcified eggshell and shell membranes, which are related to eggshell strength. Our data suggest that GAGs exist in calcified eggshell may influence morphology of shell but do not affect on increase of shell amount while GAGs of shell membranes are maybe highly associated with shell strength with an increase of shell weight. Shell strength showed a strong correlation with the content of GAGs (r = 0.942, p < 0.0005) and a weak relationship with uronic acid content (r = 0.564, p = 0.056) in shell membranes. Monosaccharides in shell membranes were determined by Bio-LC® analysis for the identification of any specific GAGs related with shell strength. It indicates that the galactose content as a component of keratan sulfate (KS) has a significant correlation with eggshell strength (r = 0.985, p < 0.0005). These results suggest that eggshell strength is proportional to the KS content of eggshell membranes with an increase of eggshell weight.