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. 2020 Jul 2;21(21):2999–3025. doi: 10.1002/cbic.202000238

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© 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA

This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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Schematic structure of the most relevant glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). All GAGs consist of a repeated disaccharide unit constituted by an acetylated sugar and an uronic acid. Chondroitin sulfate (CS) and dermatan sulfate (DS) share a GalNAc unit that can be sulfated at O4 and/or O6. Keratan sulfate (KS) displays a sulfated Gal instead of an uronic unit. Heparins and heparan sulfate (HS) are fairly heterogeneous, they can contain variable amounts of IdoA and GlcA. Often, heparins are highly sulfated (up to three sulfate groups per disaccharide) and preferentially contain IdoA.