Commercially available porcine pepsin preparations have been used for the production of chitooligosaccharides with various biomedical activities. However, the origin of this activity is not well understood. Here we show that the chitosan-degrading activity is conferred by residues with chitinolytic activity of truncated forms of acidic chitinase (Chia) persisting in the pepsin preparation. Chia is an acid-stable and pepsin-resistant enzyme that degrades chitin to produce N-acetyl-D-glucosamine dimer. We found that Chia can be truncated by pepsin under stomach-like conditions while maintaining its enzymatic activity. Similarly to the full-length protein, truncated Chia as well as the pepsin preparations digested chitosan with different degrees of deacetylation (DD: 69-84%) with comparable degradation products. The efficiency was DD-dependent with a marked decrease with higher DD, indicating that the chitosan-degrading activity in the pepsin preparation is due to the chitinolytic activity rather than chitosanolytic activity. We suggest that natural or recombinant porcine Chia are suitable for producing chitooligosaccharides for biomedical purposes.

Bioinova Ltd Videnska 1083 Prague 142 20 Czech Republic

Department of Chemistry and Life Science Kogakuin University Hachioji Tokyo 192 0015 Japan

Laboratory of Molecular Diagnostics Department of Clinical Biochemistry Hematology and Immunology Homolka Hospital Roentgenova 37 2 Prague 150 00 Czech Republic

Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Koujimachi Chiyoda ku Tokyo 102 0083 Japan

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