Structural characterisation of two hexasaccharides and an octasaccharide from chondroitin sulphate C containing the unusual sequence (4‐sulpho)‐N‐acetylgalactosamine−β1−4‐(2‐sulpho)‐glucuronic acid−β1−3‐(6‐sulpho)‐N‐acetylgalactosamine

The structures of two hexasaccharides and an octasaccharide, isolated from shark cartilage chondroitin sulphate C after partial chondroitin ABC lyase digestion, have been elucidated by disaccharide analysis, liquid secondary-ion mass spectrometry, and 1H/13C NMR spectroscopy. In the case of the octasaccharide, the order of the internal disaccharide units was deduced from a novel one-dimensional TOCSY/ROESY excitation sculpting experiment [Gradwell M. J., Kogelberg, H. & Frenkiel, T. A. (1997) J. Magn. Reson. 124, 267-270] which incorporates two double-pulsed field-gradient spin-echo sequences. The oligosaccharides each contain the unusual motif GalNAc(4SO3-)beta1-4GlcA(2SO3-)beta1-3GalNAc(6SO3++ +-). From the adjoining sequences in the oligosaccharides, it is apparent that this motif occurs interspersed with typical chondroitin sulphate-C disaccharides, GlcAbeta1-3GalNAc(6SO3-). Such differentially sulphated domains along the glycosaminoglycan chains are potential sites for specific recognition processes.