Marine sulfated polysaccharides have aroused widespread concern for their various structures and bioactivities. Peroxide depolymerization is a common strategy in analysis of structures and structure-activity relationships of polysaccharides. However, confirming the depolymerization process and exact structures of the degradation products is still a considerable challenge. This study reported the structures of a fucan sulfate (FS) from sea cucumber Stichopus herrmanni and its depolymerized products (dFS) prepared by peroxide degradation. The FS was elucidated with a highly regular structure, {-3)-L-Fuc2S-(α1-}n. Structure analysis of oligosaccharides purified from dFS suggested that peroxide degradation involved in cleavage of glycosidic bonds and oxidative modification of reducing end of sugar residue, while no break in sugar ring was observed. Both FS and series of dFSs exhibited significant anticoagulant activities due to their anti-thrombin effects in presence of heparin cofactor II and their potencies were related to their molecular sizes, dFS with ∼ 20 kDa showed the strongest activity.
Keywords: anti-thrombin activity; fucan sulfate; oligosaccharides; peroxide depolymerization.
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