Porcine mucosal heparin was partially depolymerized with heparin lyase I and then fractionated into low-molecular-weight (< 5000) and high-molecular-weight (> 5000) oligosaccharides by pressure filtration. The high-molecular-weight oligosaccharide mixture (approximately 50 wt% of the starting heparin) also contained intact heparin. This intact polymer complicates oligosaccharide purification. Thus, the low-molecular-weight fraction was used to prepare homogeneous oligosaccharides for structural characterization. The low-molecular-weight oligosaccharide mixture was first fractionated by low-pressure gel permeation chromatography into size-uniform mixtures of disaccharides, tetrasaccharides, hexasaccharides, octasaccharides, decasaccharides, dodecasaccharides, tetradecasaccharides and higher oligosaccharides. Each size-fractionated mixture was then purified on the basis of charge by repetitive semi-preparative strong-anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography. This approach has led to the isolation of 14 homogeneous oligosaccharides from disaccharide to tetradecasaccharide. The purity of these heparin-derived oligosaccharides was determined by gradient polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, analytical strong-anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis and one-dimensional nuclear resonance spectroscopy. The structure of these oligosaccharides was established using 600 MHz two-dimensional nuclear resonance spectroscopy. The spectral methods used included homonuclear correlation spectroscopy, nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy and heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence spectroscopy. The 1H/1H connectivities of the protons of each sugar residue in an oligosaccharide were established by two-dimensional homonuclear correlation spectroscopy, while 1H/13C assignments were made using 1H inverse detection. One- and two-dimensional nuclear resonance spectroscopic analysis of these heparin oligosaccharides showed two closely related groups of heparin-oligosaccharides are afforded by enzymatic depolymerization of heparin. One group is fully sulphated, having the structures delta UAp2S(1[-->4)-alpha-D-GlcNpS6S(1-->4)-alpha-L-IdoAp2S( 1]n-->4)-alpha- D-GlcNpS6S, where delta UAp is 4-deoxy-alpha-L-threo-hex-4-eno-pyranosyluronic acid, GlcNp is 2-deoxy-2-aminoglucopyranose, IdoAp is idopyranosyluronic acid, S is sulphate and n = 0-6. The other group of oligosaccharides differ in that they contain beta-D-glucuronic acid in place of the alpha-L-iduronic acid residue nearest to the reducing end. The present study describes the isolation and structural elucidation of seven new oligosaccharides: an octasaccharide, two decasaccharides, two dodecasaccharides and two tetradecasaccharides. The utility of two-dimensional nuclear resonance spectroscopy to determine the structure of complex heparin oligosaccharides is also illustrated.

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