Non-reducing End of Heparin Tri-saccharide is a Scavenger Tool to Detoxify the Glucose Toxicity in Diabetes

Heparin is a highly sulfated, hence highly polyanionic, glycosaminoglycan with a repeating disaccharide that contains a hexuronic acid, and it has been used as an anticoagulant clinically for more than half a century. Daily IP injections of small amounts of heparin in the STZ diabetic rat prevented these pathological responses even though the animals sustained hyperglycemic levels of glucose throughout. However, the structural determinant that mediates this activity is not clear. This paper describes our finding that the responses of hyperglycemic dividing mesangial cells to heparin are mediated by its non-reducing terminal trisaccharide and proposes that the non-reducing end tri-saccharide of heparin acts as a scavenger tool to detoxify the glucose toxicity in diabetes.