Table 1.

Inhibition of elastase release by a range of heparinase-derived fractions of heparin, with respect to molecular size, the LMWH from which they were derived and UH

	fMLP-treated cells		TNFα+fMLP-treated cells
Number of saccharides	Inhibition at 100 μg ml−1 (%)	IC50 (μg ml−1)	Inhibition at 100 μg ml−1 (%)	IC50 (μg ml−1)
4	39.2±0.5*	—	32.5±4.4*	—
6	44.4±4.1*	—	41.7±3.1*	—
8	56.3±7.6*	81.8±1.5	62.6±8.8*	71.9±1.3
10	68.1±6.4*	20.6±1.6	84.2±4.9*	42.0±1.9
12	73.4±5.8*	23.9±1.5	94.7±2.9*	14.4±1.3
14	72.5±5.7*	25.4±1.4	81.1±4.7*	18.7±1.2
20	88.5±3.0*	7.9±1.5	95.3±3.1*	7.5±1.3
LMWH	65.6±1.3*	16.2±1.4	63.8±13.5*	11.7±2.2
UH	63.3±4.4*	18.3±3.6	66.4±5.5*	5.6±1.7

Abbreviations: fMLP, formyl-Met-Leu-Phe; LMWH, low molecular weight heparin; TNF-α, tumour necrosis factor-α; UH, unfractionated heparin.

Data are shown for inhibition of neutrophil elastase release, when induced by fMLP alone (10⁻⁷ M; first columns) and fMLP (10⁻⁷ M) following priming with TNF-α (10 ng ml⁻¹; second column).

^*P<0.05.