What is the function of heparan sulfate?

Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are a class of carbohydrate-modified proteins involved in key biological processes, including growth factor signaling, cell adhesion, and enzymatic catalysis. HSPGs serve as coreceptors for a number of ligand molecules to regulate their signaling and distribution.

What is a heparan sulphate ProteoGlycan?

Heparan sulphate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are cell-surface or extracellular matrix glycoproteins that are modified by the addition of one or several glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains. GAGs are long unbranched polysaccharide chains that consist of repeating disaccharide units incorporating an amino sugar and a uronic acid.

What is heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycans?

Introduction. Heparan sulfate (HS) is a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) that is ubiquitously expressed on cell surfaces and in the extracellular matrix (ECM) and basement membrane (BM).

What does heparan sulfate inhibit?

Heparan sulfate inhibited thrombin generation and accelerated the inactivation of added thrombin and factor Xa in normal plasma but not in antithrombin III-depleted plasma. In contrast, dermatan sulfate inhibited thrombin generation in both normal and antithrombin III-depleted plasma.

What is the difference between heparin and heparan sulfate?

Heparan sulfate (HS) polysaccharides are ubiquitous components of the cell surface and extracellular matrix of all multicellular animals, whereas heparin is present within mast cells and can be viewed as a more sulfated, tissue-specific, HS variant.

Is heparan sulfate a glycoprotein?

Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are glycoproteins, with the common characteristic of containing one or more covalently attached heparan sulfate (HS) chains, a type of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) (Esko et al.

Do proteoglycans have structural role?

Proteoglycans exhibit tremendous structural variation due to a number of factors. First, proteoglycans that contain more than one GAG chain usually exhibit variation in the number of attached chains. For example, syndecan-1 has five attachment sites for GAGs, but not all of the sites are used equally.

What is heparan sulfate made of?

Heparin and heparan sulfate are built up of linear chains of repeating disaccharide units consisting of a glucosamine and uronic acid. The initial disaccharide unit that constitutes the growing chain during biosynthesis has a d-glucuronic acid β1 → 4 linked to a d-N-acetylglucosamine.

What are the function of proteoglycans in human body?

The major biological function of proteoglycans derives from the physicochemical characteristics of the glycosaminoglycan component of the molecule, which provides hydration and swelling pressure to the tissue enabling it to withstand compressional forces.