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Heparin‐derived oligosaccharides: Affinity for acidic fibroblast growth factor and effect on its growth‐promoting activity for human endothelial cells

The minimal structural requirements for the interaction of heparin with acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) were investigated. Oligosaccharides (tetra‐ to decasaccharides) obtained by nitrous acid depolymerisation of standard heparin were separated by affinity chromatography on Sepharose‐immobilised aFGF. The shortest fragment retained by the affinity column at 0.2 M NaCl and eluted at 1 M NaCl was a “regular” hexasaccharide, a trimer of the most abundant disaccharide sequence in heparin. More complex octa‐ and decasaccharides were also retained by the column. The Oligosaccharides eluted by 1 M NaCI from the affinity column (“high‐affinity” Oligosaccharides) and those washed from the column at 0.2 M NaCI (“low‐affinity” Oligosaccharides) were compared for their capacity to protect aFGF from proteolysis and to potentiate its mitogenic activity. At a low ionic strength, all Oligosaccharides tested, except the “regular” disaccharide, protected aFGF againsttrypsin and collagenase digestion. At higher ionic strength (> 0.2 M NaCI), only high‐affinity Oligosaccharides showed a protective effect. The high‐affinity oligosaccharides (hexa‐ to decasaccharides) potentiated the mitogenic activity of aFGF, as measured by [3H]thymidine incorporation into DNA of human fibroblasts. The effect of the oligosaccharides on human endothelial cell proliferation was more complex: inhibition of proliferation was observed in the presence of serum and low concentrations of aFGF (1‐5 ng/ml) and potentiation in the presence of higher concentrations of aFGF. The potentiating effect increased as a function of molecular size of the heparin fragments and, for a given size, as a function of the anionic charge of the oligosaccharide. Our results suggest that inhibition of cell proliferation by heparin may result from interference with an autocrine basic FGF‐like activity.