Proton nuclear magnetic resonance characterisation of glycosaminoglycans using chemometric techniques

Abstract

Various types of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) including heparins, chondroitin sulfates, dermatan sulfate and hyaluronic acid were studied from their proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectra using chemometric techniques. Despite the complexity of the ¹H NMR signals, data analysis using principal component analysis enabled the different GAG classes to be distinguished and permitted their classification according to their chemical structure. The analysis of the composition of the major disaccharide unit and other relevant chemical structures in the heparin samples was performed using partial least squares regression.