| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are complex sulfated polysaccharides with a backbone structure composed of a repeating disaccharide unit and occur in animal tissues. Highly heterogeneous sulfated patterns found in the GAG chains and the specific molecular interactions of GAGs with protein factors are involved in the regulation of various biological processes. To elucidate the relation between alterations in the fine structure and the changes in the specificity of the growth factor-binding during development, the following experiments were carried out. Furthermore, to better understand the structure-function relation of chondroitin sulfate (CS) chains, the highly sensitive method to determine CS oligosaccharide sequences at low pmol was also developed.
1. Heparan sulfate and CS/dermatan sulfate chains were isolated from four different stages of Xenopus laevis embryos and their structure and growth factor-binding capacities were compared. Growth factor-binding experiments using a BlAcore system
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demonstrated that GAGs bound some growth factors with comparable affinities, which are, however, significantly varied during development. These results suggested that expression of saccharide sequences, which specifically interact with a growth factor, might be regulated during Xenopus embryogenesis.
2. GAGs of Hydra magnipapillata were demonstrated and characterized. Immunostaining using anti-GAG antibodies showed that the epitope of anti-chondroitin antibody 473Al2 was localized in the developing nematocysts, which is a sting organelle specific to cnidarians. The chondroitin or CS proteoglycans might furnish an environment for assembling nematocyst components, and might be components of nematocysts.
3. A variety of novel octa-and decasaccharides were isolated from shark cartilage CS-C as well as squid cartilage CS-E, and their saccharide sequences were determined using the newly developed sequencing method. These structurally-defined oligosaccharides were applied for characterization of the epitopes of several widely used anti-CS antibodies. Less
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