Dermatan sulfate structure

The methylated derivatives served as the basis of elegant studies in which Jeanloz and his colleagues unequivocally established the structure of hyaluronan, dermatan sulfate, and the chondroitin sulfates. They also clarified many confusing issues, including the position of the sulfate groups in these polymers. In the course of this work, they proved that dermatan sulfate contained L-iduronic acid, a sugar not known before to occur in nature. 

See also Skin entries Dermaseptin(s), 18 254, 263-265 amino acid sequence of, 18 2641 properties of, 18 264 Dermaseptin derivatives, 18 266 Dermatan sulfates, 4 706 20 457 classification by structure, 4 723t Dermatin sulfate, 4 98 Dermatitis... 

Fig. 2 Structures of the major and minor disaccharide sequences of heparin and heparan sulfate as well as the major disaccharide units of chondroitin sulfate, dermatan sulfate, keratan sulfate, and hyaluronic acid, where Ac is acetyl.

Pavao, M., Aiello, K., Werneck, C., Silva, L., Valente, A. P., Mulloy, B., Colwell, N. S., Tollefsen, D. M., and Mourao, P. A. (1998). Highly sulfated dermatan sulfates from ascidians. Structure versus anticoagulant activity of these glycosaminoglycans.. Biol. Chem. 273, 27848-27857. 

Sugahara, K., Mikami, T., Uyama, T., Mizuguchi, S., Nomura, K., and Kitagawa, H. (2003). Recent advances in the structural biology of chondroitin sulfate and dermatan sulfate. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 13, 612-620. 

Fig. 4.1.2 Structure of dermatan sulfate. Cleavage sites for lysosomal enzymes are also indicated (arrows)...

Model building in the computer is used to analyze the conformational effects of steric interactions between atoms of the polymer skeleton for x-carrageenan, t-carrageenan, A-carrageenan, agar, chondroltin, chondroitin sulfates, dermatan sulfate, keratan sulfate, hyaluronic acid, and related polysaccharides. Over 99% of the conformations are thus excluded and virtually all of the remainder for each polysaccharide lie close together. Predictions are also made from disaccharide crystal structures and checked against experimental results. 

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