Sulfation of silk sericin and anticoagulant activity of sulfated sericin.
Silk sericin extracted from a cocoon was sulfated by chlorosulfonic acid. Sulfation of sericin was confirmed by FT-IR and the reaction efficiency was calculated as 44.9%. 1H-NMR suggested that sulfation mainly occurred at serine residues in the sericin molecule. The sulfated sericin was separated in three fractions by gel-filtration chromatography using Sephacryl S-200. The sulfate group content and amino-acid composition of each fraction were almost identical, while the anticoagulant activity differed for each fraction of sulfated sericin. Higher anticoagulant activity was observed for the higher-molecular-mass fraction. The anticoagulant activity of sulfated sericin was estimated at 1/10 to 1/20 of heparin.
National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, 1-2 Owashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8634, Japan. ytamada@affrc.go.jp
Yasushi
Y
Tamada
Masanari
M
Sano
Kazuki
K
Niwa
Toshio
T
Imai
Gen
G
Yoshino
D000818:Animals; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012831:Bombyx / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D002417:Cattle; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D006493:Heparin / Q000494:pharmacology; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D015394:Molecular Structure; D047030:Sericins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013431:Sulfates / Q000737:chemistry*
D000925:Anticoagulants; D019476:Insect Proteins; D047030:Sericins; D013431:Sulfates; D006493:Heparin