The enzymatic degradation of heparitin sulfate

A non-sulfated, N-acetylated disaccharide was isolated from hepatirin sulfate after enzymatic digestion. This compound containing α, β unsaturated uronic acid is an isomer of a disaccharide obtained previously from hyaluronic acid. It contains an α- d -(1 → 4) rather than the β- d -(1 → 3) linkage found in the hyaluronate compound. The isolation of another non-sulfated, N-acetylated compound, most likely a tetrasaccharide, indicates that at least two or more N-acetylated units occur in sequence in the polysaccharide. The linkages in the non-sulfated portion of heparitin sulfate appear to be mainly α- d -(1 → 4) .