A review of chemical methods for the selective sulfation and desulfation of polysaccharides

Sulfated polysaccharides are known to possess several biological activities, with their sulfation pattern acting as a code able to transmit functional information. Due to their high biological and biomedical importance, in the last two decades many reports on the chemical modification of their sulfate distribution as well as on the regioselective insertion of sulfate groups on non-sulfated polysaccharides appeared in literature. In this Review we have for the first time collected these reports together, categorizing them into three different classes: i) regioselective sulfation reactions, ii) regioselective desulfation reactions, iii) regioselective insertion of sulfate groups through multi-step strategies, and discussing their scope and limitations.