title: Relationship between molecular weight, monosaccharide composition and immunobiologic activity of Astragalus polysaccharides.
abstract: Four Astragalus polysaccharides (APS1-APS4) were isolated from the water extract of Radix Astragali and purified through ethanol precipitation with 20 %, 40 %, 60 % and 80 % ethanol, respectively. The total sugar content was measured by sulfuric acid-phenol method. Their molecular weight was determined using high performance gel permeation chromatography (HPGPC) and their monosaccharide composition was analyzed by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) after pre-column derivatization. Then the immunobiologic activity of APS was evaluated by the experiment of spleen lymphocytes proliferation in vitro. The data suggested that precipitation by different concentration of ethanol will obtain different molecular weight APS, the higher concentration of ethanol the smaller molecular weight for APS. The molecular weights of four APS were 257.7 kDa, 40.1 kDa, 15.3 kDa and 3.2 kDa. Monosaccharide composition analysis indicated that APS1 consisted of glucose only, and APS2 all consisted of arabinose. APS3 consisted of rhamnose, glucose, galactose and arabinose and APS4 consisted of galactose and arabinose, in a molar ratio of 1:10.76:6.55:12 and 3.02:1. The result of immunobiologic activity assay showed that both APS2 and APS3 can effectively stimulate normal spleen lymphocyte proliferation in vitro. Apart from this, the effect of APS2 also showed dose dependent tendency from 6.25 μg/mL to 800 μg/mL. The result of this research indicated that Astragalus polysaccharides, which consist of arabinose and their molecular weight between 15.2 kDa to 40.1 kDa, neither too high nor too low, had significant immune activity.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New-tech for Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutical Processes, Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., 58 Haichangnan Road, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yiping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Jinan Health and Medical Technology Co., Ltd., Jinan high-tech zone picked Chinese road, 2766, Jinan, Shandong Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiaohui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New-tech for Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutical Processes, Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., 58 Haichangnan Road, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New-tech for Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutical Processes, Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., 58 Haichangnan Road, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New-tech for Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutical Processes, Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., 58 Haichangnan Road, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New-tech for Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutical Processes, Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., 58 Haichangnan Road, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ningbo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New-tech for Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutical Processes, Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., 58 Haichangnan Road, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New-tech for Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutical Processes, Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., 58 Haichangnan Road, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wenzhe
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New-tech for Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutical Processes, Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., 58 Haichangnan Road, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhenzhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New-tech for Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutical Processes, Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., 58 Haichangnan Road, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China. kanionlunwen@163.com.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xiao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D027883:Astragalus Plant / Q000737:chemistry*; D002236:Carbohydrate Conformation; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009005:Monosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D009005:Monosaccharides; D011134:Polysaccharides
keywords: Astragalus polysaccharide; Immunobiologic activity; Molecular weight; Monosaccharide composition