Pentaerythritol as the core of multivalent glycolipids: synthesis of a glycolipid with three SO3Lea ligands.

A glycolipid containing three SO(3)Le(a) ligands was synthesized with pentaerythritol as the core. The glycolipid was used to prepare glycoliposomes that showed stability similar to that of DSPC liposomes without glycolipid. The easily prepared derivatives of pentaerythritol proved to be useful scaffolds for multivalent displaying of carbohydrates in the form of glycolipids and clustered glycoliposomes. [structure: see text]