Electrofocusing of heparin: Presence of 21 monomeric and dimeric molecular species in heparin preparations.

Electrofocusing of heparins and subsequent polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis has shown that two types of heparins are present in different tissues. One of the types (from beef lung tissues) gives only a single band in agarose gel electrophoresis and 21 molecular species after electrofocusing and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The other type of heparin (from pork intestinal mucosa) gives two bands in agarose gel electrophoresis and 42 molecular species after electrofocusing and polyacrylamide. Ascorbic acid treatment of the pork intestinal mucosa heparin reduced the number of molecular species to 21. A suggestion is made that some heparins exist as monomeric or dimeric molecular species forming single or double helixes.