Relative activities of heparin fractions obtained by gel chromatography.

In order to investigate the reported heterogeneity of commercial heparin injections, lung and mucous preparations were fractionated by gel chromatography according to molecular size. Eluent pools were characterized by measuring electrophoretic mobility, anticoagulant activity using a reactivation assay and an anti-Xa assay, lipolytic activity and the protamine neutralization value. The only biological activity to show a marked relationship with the molecular size of the heparin fraction was the anti-Xa activation activity. This effect was more pronounced with the mucous heparins than with the lung heparin preparation studied.