A synthetic heparan sulfate pentasaccharide, exclusively containing l-iduronic acid, displays higher affinity for FGF-2 than its d-glucuronic acid-containing isomers Original Research Article

It has been suggested that the FGF-2 binding site on heparan sulfate chains is a trisulfated pentasaccharide containing three hexuronic acid units. The configuration at C-5 of two of them being undetermined, we have synthesized the four possible pentasaccharides, and have evaluated their FGF-2 binding affinity through in vitro biological assays. The pentasaccharide containing l-iduronic acid as the sole hexuronic acid showed higher affinity for FGF-2 than the other pentasaccharides, where one hexuronic acid unit at least is d-glucuronic acid.