Synthesis of oligomeric assemblies of a platelet-binding key disaccharide in heparin and their biological activities

Heparin, highly sulfated glycosaminoglycan, binds to platelets. A key disaccharide unit in heparin was previously found to be responsible for the binding, and the frequency of the disaccharide unit was important for the binding potency. A newly developed method based on the reductive amination was effectively applied to prepare structurally defined oligomeric assemblies possessing multiple units of the key disaccharide. From their platelet-binding activities measured by the competitive binding assay, the enhancement of the activity was clearly observed with increasing number of the key disaccharide.