High-field n.m.r. studies of keratan sulphates. 1H and 13C assignments of keratan sulphate from shark cartilage

Abstract

Keratan sulphate was extracted from a shark/whale cartilage preparation and examined by 400 MHz 1H- and 100 MHz 13C-n.m.r. spectroscopy. Assignment of the majority of the resonances was facilitated by two-dimensional 13C-1H correlation by using a modified COLOC procedure and a COSY-45 experiment. The spectra are consistent with an N-acetyl-lactosamine repeating unit that is predominantly sulphated at C-6 of both galactose and N-acetylglucosamine. Gel chromatography of a keratanase digest of the shark keratan sulphate confirmed the high degree of galactose sulphation.