Studies on the Antigenic Activities of Yeasts

III. Isolation and Inhibition Assay of the Oligosaccharides from Acid-hydrolysate of Mannan of Candida albicans

Abstract

The antigenic mannan of Candida albicans was degraded by acid-hydrolysis and the resultant oligosaccharides were fractionated by a carbon-Celite and a subsequent cellulose-powder chromatography to yield four oligosaccharides, pentaose, hexaose, heptaose and octaose, which involved 2, 6-di-0- and 6-0-substituted mannopyranosyl residues as the common feature. These oligosaccharides showed lower precipitation-inhibition activity than that of the hexaose of acetolysate, the strongest inhibitor among the oligosaccharides described in the preceding study. The order of inhibitory powers of oligosaccharides was as follows: hexaose of acetolysate>heptaose>pentaose=octaose>hexaose. The μmoles requiring for 50%-inhibition were 0.025, 0.15, 0.20, 0.20 and 0.50 respectively. The results clearly indicate that the determinant groups of the mannan of C. albicans em-ployed this study are the hexaose moieties which constitute the branching parts of polysaccharide.