ABSTRACT
This chapter describes carbohydrates in hen eggs and the structures of the oligosaccharides of the major egg glycoproteins, together with the functions of egg yolk sialyloligosaccharides. Most of the proteins in hen eggs are glycoderivatives. The chapter also describes the structures of sugar chains of the major glycoproteins in hen eggs. Sialylglycoconjugates, such as gangliosides, sialyloligosaccharides, and sialylglycoproteins, have been reported to play various important roles in animal and human tissue cells. For example, they act as receptors of such viruses as Sendai virus, influenza virus, coronavirus, and so on. The egg yolk sialyloligosaccharides were administrated to rats age 14 days to 21 days after birth, and the goal reaching time and success ratio of goal reaching were inspected for 42–49 day old rats by applying the maze test. The result suggests that the sialyloligosaccharides play an important role in improving the learning performance of infant rats.
