Structural Characterization of Pharmaceutical Heparins Prepared from Different Animal Tissues

ABSTRACT: Although most pharmaceutical heparin used today is obtained from porcine in-testine, heparin has historically been prepared from bovine lung and ovine intestine. There is some regulatory concern about establishing the species origin of heparin. This concern began with the outbreak of mad cow disease in the 1990s and was exacerbated during the heparin shortage in the 2000s and the heparin contamination crisis of 2007–2008. Three heparins from porcine, ovine, and bovine were characterized through state-of-the-art carbohydrate analysis methods with a view profiling their physicochemical properties. Differences inmolecular weight, monosaccharide and disaccharide composition, oligosaccharide sequence, and antithrombin III-binding affinity were observed. These data provide some insight into the variability of hep-arins obtained from these three species and suggest some analytical approaches that may b