Deciphering the glycosaminoglycan code with the help of microarrays

Abstract

Carbohydrate microarrays have become a powerful tool to elucidate the biological role of complex sugars . Microarrays are particularly useful for the study of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), a key class of carbohydrates. The high-throughput chip format enables rapid screening of large numbers of potential GAG sequences produced via a complex biosynthesis while consuming very little sample. Here, we briefly highlight the most recent advances involving GAG microarrays built with synthetic or naturally derived oligosaccharides . These chips are powerful tools for characterizing GAG–protein interactions and determining structure–activity relationships for specific sequences. Thereby, they contribute to decoding the information contained in specific GAG sequences.