Take the following example: The main killer of people today, cancer, occurs because similar cells forget that they are similar, and split up (metastasis). They travel through the circulatory system, and invade other organs or clog up blood vessels. One important function of proteoglycans is to encourage similar cells to stay together.
舉例來說，比如今天人類的頭號殺手﹘﹘惡性腫瘤的形成，是因為相同的細胞不記得自己是同類而分離，隨著血管遊走，破壞由同一細胞組成的器官，而蛋白醣最大的功能正是可以固定同一種類的細胞。