Applications of heparin and heparan sulfate microarrays.

Carbohydrate microarrays have become crucial tools for revealing the biological interactions and functions of glycans, primarily because the microarray format enables the investigation of large numbers of carbohydrates at a time. Heparan sulfate (HS) and heparin are the most structurally complex glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). In this chapter, we describe the preparation of a small library of HS/heparin oligosaccharides, and the fabrication of HS/heparin microarrays that have been used to establish HS/heparin-binding profiles. Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs), natural cytotoxicity receptors (NCRs), and chemokines were screened to illuminate the very important biological functions of these glycans.