Arabinan

The sidechain in the lipopolysaccharide lipoarabinomannan which is considered the major antigen of mycobacterial cell walls. LAM from Mycobacterium tuberculosis exhibit a wide variety of biological activities, like O-antigenic lipopolysaccharides, such as suppression of T lymphocyte proliferation, inhibition of γ-interferon-mediated activation of murine macrophages, immunomodulation of a large array of macrophage cytokines [1], induction of the release of tumor necrosis factor, and a generalized inhibition of antigen presentation by antigen presenting cells [5]. The arabinose-free version of LAM is not antigenic [5]. The lipoarabinomannan from Mycobacterium bovis is used as a vaccine against tuberculosis [4].

Sulfated arabinan from Codium latum show anticoagulant activity, 9.5 times that of heparin [2].