The heparitin sulfates (heparan sulfates)

Abstract

Heparitin sulfate has been isolated from several sources, namely: a commercial lung polysaccharide preparation, beef lung, beef aorta, human amyloid liver, human intestine, and urine of a patient with mucopolysaccharidosis. The polysaccharides isolated were extensively purified, fractionated, and characterized. The data obtained show that heparitin sulfate is not a single compound but constitutes a family of related polymers which differ in sulfate content and in the arrangement of charged groups. These compounds are readily distinguished from most other glycosamino-glycuronans (mucopolysaccharides) by composition and optical rotation. They can be differentiated from heparin by their content of sulfate and N-acetyl groups, and D-glucuronic acid residues and by the ratio of the carbazole to orcinol uronic acid values. Due to the variations of charge distribution and molecular size, the heparitin sulfates are found to a considerable extent in admixture with other acidic polysaccharides during isolation and fractionation procedures. The particular type of heparitin sulfate obtained varies considerably with the tissue of origin. The lung-derived material was found to contain the largest range of subfractions. The heparitins isolated from aorta and amyloid liver were fairly homogenous in themselves, but differed from each other.