Chemical synthesis of disaccharides which are partial structures of the glycosaminoglycan heparan sulfate

Abstract

A specific tetradecasaccharide sequence (oligo-H, 1) of the proteoglycan heparan sulfate has recently been identified as being responsible for binding and activation of the basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF); a potent mitogen. We present here the first synthetic study towards partial structures of oligo-H and analogues. Our first target compound is the disaccharide 2, which corresponds to the dimeric repeat of the central decameric sequence of oligo-H.