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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Looking Outwards: Isolation of Cyanobacterial Released Carbohydrate Polymers and Proteins
Published on: May 27, 2019
Complement modulating and anticoagulant effects of a sulfated exopolysaccharide released by the cyanobacterium
Rainer-B Volk1, Kathrin Venzke, Wolfgang Blaschek
1Pharmaceutical Institute, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany. volk@pharmazie.uni-kiel.de
Abstract:
During batch cultivation, the cyanobacterial strain Synechocystis aquatilis Sauvageau B90.79 was found to release a fucose-rich sulfated polysaccharide, which was mainly composed of arabinose (45%) and fucose (47%) and had a degree of sulfation of 0.43. The released polysaccharide showed merely an anticoagulant activity of less than 10% compared to the reference compound, unfractionated heparin. However, distinctive effects on the complement activation were observed: its inhibitory effect on the classical pathway of complement activation was 600-fold stronger than that of unfractionated heparin, whereas that on the alternative pathway of complement activation was 2- to 3-fold weaker. The results indicate that this biotechnologically producible, released polysaccharide represents a specifically acting complement modulator.
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