Turkey intestine studied as alternative source of heparin.

2003 MAR 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Searching for "alternative, non-mammalian sources of anticoagulant heparin," biochemists have hit upon turkey intestines as a possibility.

"Heparin is a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) that is extracted primarily from porcine intestinal tissues and is widely used as a clinical anticoagulant. It is biosynthesized as a proteoglycan and stored exclusively in mast cells, and is partially degraded to peptidoglycan and GAG on immunologically activated mast cell degranulation," explained M. Warda and colleagues, University of Iowa.

"In contrast, the structurally related heparan sulfate is the polysaccharide portion of a …