Disaccharide structure code for the easy representation of constituent oligosaccharides from glycosaminoglycans

Here we introduce a new shorthand nomenclature for designating the disaccharide subunit structure of all glycosaminoglycans as a way to compare compositions and describe linear sequences. Each disaccharide structural code (DSC) comprises four alphanumeric characters that reflect the actual substituents and isomeric characteristics of each component sugar. Larger structures can be represented easily by forming concatamers. The structural transparency of this new nomenclature eliminates the need for ambiguous acronyms or difficult numeric representations.