Encyclopedia: Fondaparinux
Fondaparinux is an anticoagulant medication. As shown in the box to the right, fondaparinux is a synthetic pentasaccharide. Apart from the O-methyl group at the reducing end of the molecule, the identity and sequence of the five monomeric sugar units contained in fondaparinux is identical to a sequence of five monomeric sugar units that can be isolated after either chemical or enzymatic cleavage of the polymeric glycosaminoglycans heparin and heparan...