Heparin and heparan sulfate, exhibiting wide biological interactions, are constituted of block structures. A defined pentasaccharide motif was found responsible for the enhancement of the rate of inactivation of factor Xa by antithrombin III. Heparin also interacts with other serine proteinase inhibitors as protease nexin I, and thus possibly modulates extracellular matrix proteolysis by serine proteinases in the pericellular environment. Human neutrophil elastase (HNE) activity is inhibited by heparin with Ki = 75 pM. This strong interaction is electrostatic, involving HNE/arginine residues disposed in a "cluster shoe" arrangement on the surface of the molecule and mainly OSO3- groups of heparin. HNE-heparin interactions also interfere with HNE associations with its natural inhibitors: it decreases the rate of association of HNE with alpha 1 proteinase inhibitor (alpha 1 P(i)) by 3 orders of magnitude, while increasing kass between HNE and mucus bronchial inhibitor (MBI) by > 10 fold. In vivo experiments demonstrated that heparin fragments lacking anticoagulant activity were able to nearly completely abolish emphysematous lesions induced in mice by a single intratracheal administration of 200 micrograms HNE. Long chain unsaturated fatty acids peptide conjugates were described as competitive HNE inhibitors (Hornebeck W. et al. 1985). We synthesized N-oleoyl heparin derivative (3 oleoyl groups/one molecule of heparin); such a lipophilic glycosaminoglycan (LipoGAG), although acting as an elastin protecting agent, possessed lower HNE inhibitory capacity as compared with heparin. In contrast, however, it was able to inhibit other serine proteinases such as urokinase, plasmin, porcine pancreatic apha-chymotrypsin and elastase. Such Lipo GAG's can be therefore useful to control matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) during tissue remodeling or tumor invasion.