Anticoagulant Effects of Glycosaminoglycan Extracted from Fish Scales

Introduction: Fishery wastes are the unique sources of natural products, and structural and chemical characteristics of their extracted compounds are different from those of terrestrial animals. They are known as rich sources of bioactive molecules, including collagen and glycosaminoglycan (GAG). In the present study, we extracted and analysed the anticoagulant activity of GAG from fish (Rutilus frisii kutum) scales. Methods: The GAG compounds were extracted using cationic salt of cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC). Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to identify and compare the structure of the extracted GAG with that of heparin. Anticoagulant property of extracted material was measured by prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and thrombin time (TT) on human plasma at three concentrations of 50, 100, and 200 µg/mL. Results: The mass of the extracted GAG was estimated approximately 23.8 mg/g of dry tissue. FTIR analysis confirmed the presence of heparinlike compounds in fish scalesextracted GAG. Human plasma coagulation times significantly increased with increasing the extracted GAGs concentration. At the concentration of 200 µg/mL, coagulation time of aPTT was 4.3 times as that of control reaching 138.6 seconds. Conclusion: The results of the current study showed that the GAG extracted from fish scales had valuable anticoagulant properties compared to synthetic anticoagulant compounds such as heparin.