Heparan Sulphate Oligosaccharides

Description

Heparan Sulphate (HS) is a near-universal co-receptor for many growth factors and morphogenic proteins; it has a complex domain organisation of alternating high and low sulphated regions (Int J Exp Pathol (2015). 96:203-231.) in which variations in polymer sulphation and epimerisation lead to considerable structural diversity designed for selective binding to its many client proteins. We take advantage of the substrate specificities of Heparinase I (Hep I) and Heparinase III (Hep III) for the preparation of HS-oligos from regions of low and high sulphation in HS.

Separation of HS-oligosaccharides (HS-oligos) in the enzyme digests is achieved by high resolution preparative gel filtration of the Hep I or Hep III enzyme digests. The separated HS-oligo fractions are then analysed for disaccharide composition and molecular size homogeneity. Although substantially homogeneous by SEC Superdex S-75, HS-oligos in each size class contain sequences that vary in pattern and density of sulphation and there may be some limited overlap with oligos in adjacent size groups.

HS-oligos. from both Hep I and Hep III digests are available in the size range from dp4 to dp20 where dp is degree of polymerisation, a dp4 is a tetrasaccharide, dp6 a hexasaccharide, dp8 an octasaccharide etc. up to dp20.

High mol wt fractions (>6000 daltons) are also available.