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Glycobiology Advance Access published online on January 22, 2004
Glycobiology, doi:10.1093/glycob/cwh050
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Submitted on July 31, 2003
Revised on December 2, 2003
Accepted on December 19, 2003

© 2004 Oxford University Press

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Chemical and biological characterization of a polysaccharide biological response modifier from Aloe vera. L. var. chinensis (Haw.) Berg.

M. Y. K. Leung 1, C. Liu 2, L. F. Zhu 3, Y. Z. Hui 4, B. Yu 4, and K. P. Fung 5*

1 Institute of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
2 Department of Biochemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
3 South China Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
4 Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
5 Institute of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, People's Republic of China; Department of Biochemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kpfung{at}cuhk.edu.hk.

Abstract

Three purified polysaccharides fractions designated as PAC-I, PAC-II and PAC-III were prepared from Aloe vera. L. var. chinensis (Haw.) Berg. by membrane fractionation and gel filtration high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The polysaccharides fractions had molecular weights of 10,000 kD, 1,300 kD and 470 kD respectively. The major sugar residue in the polysaccharides fractions is mannose, which was found to be 91.5% in PAC-I, 87.9% in PAC-II and 53.7% in PAC-III. The protein content in polysaccharides fractions was undetectable. NMR study of PAC-I and PAC-II demonstrated the polysaccharides shared the same structure. The main skeleton of PAC-I and PAC-II is {beta}-(1->4)-D linked mannose with acetylation at C-6 of manopyranosyl. The polysaccharides fractions stimulated peritoneal macrophages, splenic T- and B- cell proliferation, and activated these cells to secrete TNF-{alpha}, IL-1{beta}, INF-{gamma}, IL-2 and IL-6. The polysaccharides fractions were non-toxic and exhibited potent indirect anti-tumour response in murine model. PAC-I, which had the highest mannose content and molecular weight, was found to be the most potent biological response modifier of the three polysaccharides fractions. Our results suggested that the potency of Aloe polysaccharide fraction increases as mannose content and molecular weight of the polysaccharide fraction increase.


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