Heparin & Oligosaccharides

Heparin is a polysaccharide composed of disaccharide units of hexuronic acid and glucosamine. Heparin has strong anticoagulation activity and is broadly used in clinic for prevention and treatment of thrombosis. The anticoagulation activity of heparin is through its specific binding to the endogenous anticoagulant, antithrombin that inhibits the coagulation enzymes. Clinical application observed additional effects of heparin, which presumably is through interactions with other proteins. Thus, it is interesting to identify the structures of heparin binding to other biological molecules. Our products prepared from porcine intestinal mucosa heparin can be used for biological analysis in binding to diverse protein ligands.

NSK5 & Oligosaccharides

Bacteria Escherichia coli strain K5 produces capsular polysaccharide composed of glucuronic acid and glucosamine disaccharides that are identical to the disaccharides building blocks in heparin and heparan sulfate biosynthesis. The K5 polysaccharide can be converted to heparin and heparan sulfate - like molecules through chemical and enzymatic catalyzed modifications, making it a proper tool for investigation of the biosynthesis process of heparin and heparan sulfate. Our products provide tools for probe the activity of the enzymes involved in biosynthesis and metabolism of heparin and heparan sulfate.

Mouse HS

Heparan sulfate shares high structural similarity with heparin, but different from heparin that is only expressed in animal connective tissue mast cells, heparan sulfate is expressed ubiquitously in all cell surfaces and extracellular matrix, playing vital roles in multiple biological activities. The multifaced functions of heparan sulfate owes to its structural diversity that enables to interact with a broad spectrum of proteins ligands. One of the major research interests is to identify the heparan sulfate structures binding to a defined protein. Our current products provide heparan sulfate purified from diverse mouse tissues for the applications of research.

Enzymes

To understand the regulation mechanisms in heparin and heparan sulfate biosynthesis process, in vitro characterization of the actions of the enzymes involved in biosynthesis and degradation of heparin and heparan sulfate is important. We aim to provide a ‘tool kit’ of the enzymes for research applications.