Primary structure of a new tetraantennary glycan of the N-acetyllactosaminic type isolated from human factor VIII/von Willebrand factor.

N-Glycosidically linked glycopeptides released by mild alkaline treatment of human factor VIII/von Willebrand factor (FVIII/vWF) were fractionated by serial affinity chromatography on columns of Sepharose linked to concanavalin A (ConA) and Lens culinaris agglutinin (LCA). The fraction which is not retained on ConA-Sepharose, but eluted from LCA-Sepharose contains a pure minor glycopeptide which was structurally analysed. Based on the results of methylation analysis and 500-MHz 1H-NMR spectroscopy, the following structure is proposed: (Formula: see text).