Anti-coagulant Activity of Isolated and Partially Characterized Proteoglycans and Glycosaminoglycans from African Night Crawler (Eudrilus eugeniae Kinberg)

Proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans were isolated from African night crawler (Eudrilus eugeniae Kinberg) and partially characterized proteoglycans (3.04 % of lyophilized worm) were liberated from the defatted and depurinated worm samples by dissociative method using 4M urea in acetate buffer. Glycosaminoglycans (12.47% of proteoglycan extract) were extracted using enzymatic hydrolysis of the proteoglycan extract with papain. Gel filtration chromatography using Sepharose CL-4B was used to purify and estimate the molecular weights of the proteoglycan and glycosaminoglycan fractions. Three proteoglycan fractions PGF1, PGF2 and PGF3 with estimated molecular weigths 860 kDa, 181 kDa and 3 kDa, respectively were identified as monitored by the Bradford and modified carbazole assay. Two glycosaminoglycan fractions - GF1 (MW = 860 kDa) and GF2 (MW=140 kDa) were identified using the modified carbazole assay. Infrared spectroscopy of the GF1 and GF2 showed the possible identities of the fractions. GF1 may be a hyaluronic acid and GF2 is possibly chondroitin. Anti-coagulant assay for the extracts and fractions revealed that the glycosaminoglycan isolate has anti-coagulant activity but not the GF1 and GF2 fractions individually.