Novel sulfated tetrasaccharide structures containing3-
O-sulfated GlcA were isolated recentlyfrom king crab cartilage chondroitin sulfate K [Sugahara, K., Tanaka,Y.,
Yamada, S., Seno, N., Kitagawa,H., Haslam, S. M., Morris, H. R., & Dell, A. (1996)
J. Biol.Chem. 271, 26745-26754]. In thisstudy,we prepared a series of oligosaccharides from the same source afterexhaustive digestion with testicularhyaluronidase and determined the structures of a pentasaccharide, twohexasaccharides, and twoheptasaccharides by means of fast atom bombardment mass spectrometryand 500-MHz
1H-NMRspectroscopy. All the oligosaccharides had the following hithertounreported structures including a novelglucuronate 3-
O-sulfate:GlcA(3S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-4)GlcA(3S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-4)GlcA(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S),GlcA(3S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-4)GlcA(3S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-4)GlcA(3S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S),GlcA(3S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-4)(Fuc
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
1-3)GlcA(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S),GlcA(3S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-4)(Fuc
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
1-3)GlcA(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-4)GlcA(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S),and GlcA(3S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-4)GlcA(3S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S)(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-4)(Fuc
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
1-3)GlcA(
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
1-3)GalNAc(4S),where 3S or 4Srepresent 3-
O- or 4-
O-sulfate, respectively.Furthermore, the three latter structures contained anovelcombination of both 3-
O-sulfated and3-
O-fucosylated GlcA residues. The pentasaccharide with3-
O-fucosylated GlcA at the internal position remained totally resistant tochondroitinase AC-II, whereas itwas degraded by chondroitinase ABC into a disaccharide unit containingGlcA(3S) derived from thenonreducing side and a trisaccharide unit containing fucose from thereducing side.