Oligosaccharides derived from bovine articular cartilage keratan sulfates after keratanase II digestion: implications for keratan sulfate structural fingerprinting.

Keratan sulfate chains were isolated from bovine articular cartilage (6-8-year-old animals) and digested with keratanase II, an endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase [Nakazawa, K., Ito, M., Yamagata, T., & Suzuki, S. (1989) in Keratan Sulphate: Chemistry, Biology and Chemical Pathology (Greiling, H., & Scott, J. E., Eds.) pp 99-110, The Biochemical Society, London]. Twenty-five borohydride-reduced oligosaccharides were purified chromatographically and characterized by one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. From the structures of these oligosaccharides the following conclusions can be drawn about the mode of action of keratanase II: (1) The enzyme cleaves the beta (1-->3)-glycosidic bond between 6-O-sulfated N-acetyl-glucosamine and galactose, the major products being mono- and disulfated disaccharides. (2) Larger oligosaccharides containing keratanase II susceptible bonds are produced which are resistant to further degradation, e.g., tetrasaccharides from the sulfated poly(N-acetyllactosamine) repeat sequence, fucose-containing penta- and hexasaccharides, and hexa- and heptasaccharides from the linkage region. (3) The enzyme cleaves the beta (1-->3)-glycosidic bond of a fucosylated 6-O-sulfated N-acetylglucosamine. (4) Sialic acid-containing capping fragments are always recovered as pentasaccharides, despite the presence of an apparently susceptible bond. Two new elements of skeletal keratan sulfate structure, namely, the highly sulfated cap NeuAc alpha 2-3Gal(6S) beta 1-4GlcNAc (6S) beta 1-3Gal(6S) beta 1-4GlcNAc (6S)-ol and the difucosylated sequence Gal beta 1-4(Fuc alpha 1-3)GlcNAc(6S)beta 1-3Gal beta 1-4(Fuc alpha 1-3)GlcNAc(6S)-ol, have been identified. A structural model for articular cartilage keratan sulfate is proposed. The potential of the enzyme keratanase II for the structural fingerprinting of subnanogram quantities both of keratan sulfates and of sulfated oligosaccharide selectin ligands is discussed.