The Strengths and Weaknesses of Methods for Determination of Hyaluronan Molecular Weight

Abstract

Hyaluronan (HA) as a naturally polysaccharide has several physiological functions in health and disease. Depending on molecular weight (Mw), HA regulates different biological processes which have led to increased interest in determination of Mw and size distribution of HA. The Mw varies when HA is being extracted from different tissues or biological fluids and it is always polydisperse in molecular mass even when extracted from a single source. The molecular mass of the HA is an important aspect of its biological activity and physicochemical properties in sample characterization. In this review, we survey methods related to technologies for the detection of HA and determining its Mw and concentration and the advantages and disadvantages of each of them will be compared