heparin

Heparin is a member of the heparan sulphate family of complex sugars, and is well know for its widespread use as an anticoagulant drug.

The HS family of sugars are composed of long chains of repeating disaccharide units of uronic acid and glucosamine residues, decorated by variable patterns of sulphate and carboxyl groups, giving them very strong negative charge. They are produced in living cells by a complex multi-step enzymatic biosynthetic process.

Heparin is a highly sulphated and relatively structurally homogenous molecule compared to cellular heparan sulphates, which have increased sequence diversity and fulfil many complex biological functions by interacting with proteins and influencing their biological activities.

Animated picture shows an extended helical heparin sequence with sulphate groups (yellow/red) decorating the backbone (image courtesy of Dr Barbara Mulloy, National Institiute of Biological Standards, Herts, UK)