High resolution proton NMR investigations of rat blood plasma Assignment of resonances for the molecularly mobile carbohydrate side-chains of ‘acute-phase’ glycoproteins

AbstractAn intense broad resonance at 2.14 ppm present in high field (400, 500 and 600 MHz) Hahn spin-echo 1H-NMR spectra of rat blood plasma, but absent from those of human blood plasma is attributable to the presence of terminal O-acetylsialate sugars in the molecularly mobile carbohydrate side-chains of ‘acute-phase’ glycoproteins (predominantly α1-acid glycoprotein). The presence of such alternative acetylsugars in the carbohydrate side-chains of rat plasma glycoproteins are of much physiological and experimental significance in view of the regular use of these animals in model systems of human inflammatory conditions