Structural characteristics of heparan sulfates with varying sulfate contents.

Structural properties of heparan sulfate preparations from hog mucosa and beef lung sources were obtained by application of Smith degradation and nitrous acid reactions. Products formed by these reactions indicated that most of the iduronic acid present in these mucopolysaccharides is ester sulfated, whereas N-sulfated glucosamine residues are ester sulfated much less frequently. Repeating units with sulfated iduronic acid found to occur almost entirely in single sequences. Futhermore, the iduronic acid moieties may be bound to either N-acetylated or N-sulfated glucosamine units, with these occuring at either end of the uronic acid unit.