Chemical characterization of milk oligosaccharides of the polar bear, Ursus maritimus

Two trisaccharides, three tetrasaccharides, two pentasaccharides, one hexas accharide. one heptasaccharide, one octasaccharide and one decasaccharide w ere isolated from polar bear milk samples by chloroform/methanol extraction , gel filtration, ion exchange chromatography and preparative thin-layer ch romatography. The oligosaccharides were characterized by H-1-NMR as follows : the saccharides from one animal: Gal(alpha 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)Glc (alpha 3' -galactosyllactose), Fuc(alpha 1-2)Gal(beta 1-4)Glc (2'-fucosyllactose), Ga l(alpha 1-3)[Fuc(alpha 1-2)]Gal(beta 1-4)Glc (B-tetrasaccharide). GalNAc(al pha 1-3)[Fuc(alpha 1-2)]Gal(beta 1-4)Glc (A-tetrasaccharide), Gal(alpha 1-3 )Gal(beta 1-4)GlcNAc(beta 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)Glc, Gal(alpha 1-3)[Fuc(alpha 1- 2)]Gal(beta 1-4)GlcNAc(beta 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)Glc, Gal(alpha 1-3)Gal(beta 1- 4)GlcNAc(beta 1-3)[Gal(alpha 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)GlcNAc(beta 1-6)]Gal(beta 1-4 )Glc; the saccharides from another animal: alpha 3'-galactosyllactose, Gal( alpha 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)[Fuc(alpha 1-3)]Glc, A-tetrasaccharide, GalNAc(alpha 1-3)[Fuc(alpha 1-2)]Gal(beta 1-4)[Fuc(alpha 1-3)]Glc (A-pentasaccharide), Gal(alpha 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)[Fuc(alpha 1-3)]GlcNAc(beta 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)Glc , Gal(alpha 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)[Fuc(alpha 1-3)]GlcNAc(beta 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)[ Fuc(alpha 1-3)]Glc (difucosylheptasaccharide) and Gal(alpha 1-3)Gal(beta 1- 4)[Fuc(alpha 1-3)]GlcNAc(beta 1-3){Gal(alpha 1-3)Gal(beta 1-4)[Fuc(alpha 1- 3)]GlcNAc(beta 1-6)}Gal(beta 1-4)Glc (difucosyldecasaccharide). Lactose was present only in small amounts. Some of the milk oligosaccharides of the po lar bear had alpha-Gal epitopes similar to some oligosaccharides in milk fr om the Ezo brown bear and the Japanese black bear. Some milk oligosaccharid es had human blood group A antigens as well as B antigens; these were diffe rent from the oligosaccharides in Ezo brown and Japanese black bears. (C) 2 000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.