Dextran applications
The following examples give a brief presentation of technical
and pharmaceutical applications of dextrans.
Clinical grade dextrans
Clinical grade dextrans are available as
Dextran 1,
Dextran 40,
Dextran 60 and
Dextran 70.
Solutions of Dextran 40, Dextran 60 and Dextran 70 for injection
are commonly used in clinical practice for:
- Replacement of blood loss
- Plasma substitution
- Thrombosis prophylaxis
- Volume expansion
- Rheological improvement
Administration of Dextran 1 prior to injection of Dextran 40,
Dextran 60 and Dextran 70 is known to reduce the incidences of
undesired adverse reactions significantly. Clinical grade dextran
is thus possibly the safest plasma substitute in clinical use.
Dextran T products
Dextrans are easily soluble, biodegradable and biocompatible
biopolymers comprised by glucose units. Due to these
characteristics, high purity
Dextrans T products with average molecular weights ranging from
1,000 Daltons to 2,000,000 Daltons (i.e. from Dextran T1 to Dextran
T2000) serve as important starting and intermediate reagents in a
broad range of syntheses in biotechnological and technical
industries.
Dextrans in photographic industry
Highly purified Dextran T fractions are widely used in the
photographic industry, where the dextran biopolymers have been
shown to improve the quality of silver emulsions of
photographs.
Iron dextran
Dextran is an important starting material for
Iron dextran synthesis. Iron dextran solution for injection is
applied for treatment of human and veterinary anemic iron
deficiency. Pharmacosmos is cGMP (current Good Manufacturing
Practice) approved by the
Danish Medicines Agency (DKMA) as well as accepted by the
US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for manufacturing of
iron dextran powder as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and
iron dextran solution for injection as bulk and finished drug
products.
DEAE dextrans
DEAE dextrans (diethylaminoethyl dextrans) are obtained from
synthesis of diethylaminoethyl chloride with dextrans. The DEAE
dextran polycations prepared from dextran 500 fractions have been
shown to reduce serum cholesterol and triglycerides. Emphasis on
both quality and purity of dextrans used for synthesis of derivates
of dextrans are critical for end-product quality and
reproducibility.
Dextran sulfate
Dextran sulfate (dextran hydrogen sulfate, sodium salt) is a
polyanionic dextran derivative, which may be synthesized from
various high purity and well-characterized dextran fractions. In
clinical research anticoagulant dextran sulfate properties have
been tested as a possible substitute for heparin in anticoagulant
therapy. Another source of interest relates to the effect of
dextran sulfate on enzyme inhibition in certain biological
systems.
Learn more about Dextran GPC Standards.