Back غليكوز أمينوغليكان Arabic Qlikozaminoqlikanlar Azerbaijani Glicosaminoglicà Catalan Glykosaminoglykane German Γλυκοζαμινογλυκάνες Greek Glicosoaminoglicano Spanish Glikosaminglukano Basque گلیکوزآمینوگلیکان Persian Glykosaminoglykaani Finnish Glycosaminoglycane French
 | This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. (July 2015) |
Glycosaminoglycans[1] (GAGs) or mucopolysaccharides[2] are long, linear polysaccharides consisting of repeating disaccharide units (i.e. two-sugar units). The repeating two-sugar unit consists of a uronic sugar and an amino sugar, except in the case of the sulfated glycosaminoglycan keratan, where, in place of the uronic sugar there is a galactose unit.[3] GAGs are found in vertebrates, invertebrates and bacteria.[4] Because GAGs are highly polar molecules and attract water; the body uses them as lubricants or shock absorbers.
Mucopolysaccharidoses are a group of metabolic disorders in which abnormal accumulations of glycosaminoglycans occur due to enzyme deficiencies.
- ^ "glycosaminoglycan" at Dorland's Medical Dictionary
- ^ "mucopolysaccharide" at Dorland's Medical Dictionary
- ^ Esko, Jeffrey D; Kimata, Koji; Lindahl, Ulf (2009). "Chapter 16: Proteoglycans and Sulfated Glycosaminoglycans". Essentials of Glycobiology. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. ISBN 978-0879695590.
- ^ DeAngelis, Paul L. (2002-11-01). "Evolution of glycosaminoglycans and their glycosyltransferases: Implications for the extracellular matrices of animals and the capsules of pathogenic bacteria". The Anatomical Record. 268 (3): 317–326. doi:10.1002/ar.10163. ISSN 0003-276X. PMID 12382327. S2CID 38827411.