Kedar Baryal

Sherif Ramadan Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, 578 S. Shaw Lane, East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Benha University, Benha, Qaliobiya, 13518 Egypt These authors contributed equally to this work. Search for more papers by this author

Introduction Heparan sulfate (HS) is a highly sulfated complex linear polysaccharide that belongs to the family of glycosaminoglycans. It is composed of disaccharide repeating units of a d-glucosamine (GlcN) α-(1–4)-linked to a uronic acid (l-iduronic acid (IdoA) or d-glucuronic acid (GlcA)).1 In nature, multiple hydroxyl groups within the disaccharide units of HS can be O-sulfated and these can include the 2-OH of the uronic acid residue, 6-OH and 3-OH of GlcN, respectively.

Conclusion To expedite the biological understanding of HS, structurally diverse HS structures are critically needed. A systematic library of 64 HS tetrasaccharides with the GlcN-GlcA-GlcN-IdoA backbone sequence has been successfully synthesized for the first time.