Dried leech (Whitmania pigra whitman) has been widely used as a traditional animal-based Chinese medicine. Dried leech extracts have been reported to have various biological activities that are often associated with mammalian glycosaminoglycans. However, their presence and possible structural characteristics within dried leech were previously unknown. In this study, glycosaminoglycans were isolated from dried leech for the first time and their structures were analyzed by the combination of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, liquid chromatography-ion trap/time-of-flight mass spectrometry and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Heparan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate/dermatan sulfate were detected in dried leech with varied disaccharide compositions and possess a heterogeneous structure. Heparan sulfate species possess an equal amount of total 2-O-sulfated, N-sulfated and acetylated disaccharides, while chondroitin sulfate /dermatan sulfate contain high content of 4-O-sulfated disaccharides. Also, the quantitative analysis revealed that the contents of heparan sulfate and chondroitin/dermatan sulfate in dried leech varied significantly, with chondroitin/dermatan sulfate being by far the most abundant. This novel structural information could help clarify the possible involvement of these polysaccharides in the biological activities of the dried leech. Furthermore, leech glycosaminoglycans showed a strong ABTS radical scavenging ability, which suggests the potential of leech polysaccharides for exploitation in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries.

干水蛭 ( Whitmania pigra whitman) 已被广泛用作传统的动物性中药。据报道，干水蛭提取物具有多种生物活性，这些生物活性通常与哺乳动物糖胺聚糖有关。然而，它们在干水蛭中的存在和可能的结构特征以前是未知的。本研究首次从干水蛭中分离出糖胺聚糖，并结合傅里叶变换红外光谱、液相色谱-离子阱/飞行时间质谱和聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳对其结构进行了分析。在干燥的水蛭中检测到硫酸乙酰肝素和硫酸软骨素/硫酸皮肤素具有不同的二糖组成并且具有异质结构。硫酸乙酰肝素种类具有等量的总 2- O-硫酸化、N-硫酸化和乙酰化双糖，而硫酸软骨素/硫酸皮肤素含有高含量的4- O-硫酸化双糖。此外，定量分析表明，干水蛭中硫酸乙酰肝素和硫酸软骨素/硫酸皮肤素的含量差异很大，其中硫酸软骨素/硫酸皮肤素含量最高。这种新的结构信息有助于阐明这些多糖可能参与干水蛭的生物活性。此外，水蛭糖胺聚糖表现出很强的 ABTS 自由基清除能力，这表明水蛭多糖在保健品和制药工业中的开发潜力。