Glycome Atlas
Glycome pillar
The glycan-rich interface lining blood vessels and shaping endothelial signaling, permeability, and flow.
The endothelial glycocalyx is a soft, gel-like coating of sugars and sugar-linked proteins that lines the inside of every blood vessel. It sits between flowing blood and the endothelial cells that form the vessel wall, forming a protective, slippery layer that is normally invisible on a standard blood test.
Read reviewed entryHeparan sulfate is a long, negatively charged sugar chain that is attached to certain proteins on the surface of cells. It is the most abundant sugar chain in the glycocalyx, the gel-like coating that lines blood vessels, and its many negative charges pull in water and grip passing proteins.
Read reviewed entryHeparanase is an enzyme that cuts the heparan sulfate sugar chains, the most abundant sugar chains in the glycocalyx. It works like molecular scissors, snipping these long chains into shorter pieces.
Read reviewed entryHyaluronan is an extremely long, unbranched sugar chain made of the same two-sugar unit repeated thousands of times. Unlike most of the other big sugar chains in the body, it is not attached to a protein and it carries no sulfate groups. It holds a lot of water, which is why it makes tissues and the vessel lining feel soft and cushioned.
Read reviewed entrySyndecan-1 is a protein that sits in the surface of endothelial cells and other cells, with long sugar chains attached to the part that faces outward into the bloodstream. It acts like an anchor post for the gel-like glycocalyx coating, holding the sugar chains in place on the vessel wall.
Read reviewed entryThrombomodulin is a protein that sits on the surface of the cells lining blood vessels, facing into the bloodstream. It grabs onto thrombin, a clotting protein, and changes what thrombin does, switching it from promoting clots to helping shut clotting down.
Read reviewed entry