- Not to be confused with glucans .
Glycans - polysaccharides or oligosaccharides , polymers consisting of monosaccharide units connected by O-glycosidic bonds . For example, cellulose is glycan (or more specifically glucan ) consisting of beta-1,4-linked D- glucose , and chitin is glycan composed of beta-1,4-linked N- acetyl-D- glucosamine .
Glycans, which contain identical carbohydrate units (homopolysaccharides), are called homoglycans if the chain is formed by various carbohydrate units (heteropolysaccharides) - heteroglycans.
The names of homoglycans are formed by replacing the suffix -osis of the monosaccharide included in its composition with the suffix -an , for example, glucans ( cellulose , starch ), fructans ( inulin ), mannans, arabinans, etc. [1] . Glycans can be either linear or branched.
The term “glycan” is often used to refer to the carbohydrate moiety of glycoconjugates — compounds in which glycan is covalently linked to a protein chain ( glycoproteins or proteoglycans ) or to a lipid residue ( glycolipids ).