IS PENTASACCHARIDE THE SMALLEST HEPARIN OLIGOSACCHARIDE WITH BINDING AFFINITY TO ANTITHROMBIN III ? AN OVERVIEW
The binding of heparin to antithrombin III is ascribed to the presence in the heparin molecule of a specific binding site which contains a typical 3-0- sulfate group located on a glucosamine residue. It has been postulated that the smallest heparin oligosaccharide capable of high affinity binding to antithrombin III and eliciting anti-factor Xa activity is a pentasaccharide containing three glucosamine units and two uronic acid residues. Such a pentasaccharide has been recently isolated after chemical depolymerization of pig mucosal heparin and its structure found to be very close to that of a synthetic pentasaccharide prepared by other investigators. However no convincing data have, so far, excluded the possibility that an oligosaccharide composed of less than five sugar units could not be able to bind to antithrombinlll and to elicit anti-factor Xa activity. We report now the isolation of new oligosaccharides obtained by beta-eliminative chemical depolymerization of heparin using three different procedures : depolymerization of heparin benzyl ester (1) in aqueous medium and (2) in non-aqueous medium: (3) alcaline depolymerization of a periodate oxydized acetyl heparin. The data reported show that the high affinity oligosaccharides isolated after affinity chromatography on immobilized antithrombin III are distinct from the previously isolated pentasaccharide and that there is some evidence that these are tetrasaccharides resulting from the cleavage of the non reducing end of the heparin molecule