Glycopolymers are useful macromolecules with a non-carbohydrate backbone for presenting saccharides in a multivalent form. Here, a new methodology is described which allows easy access to water-soluble, biodegradable glycopolymers with both predeterminable composition and molecular weight distribution. Thus, chloroacetylation of commercially available polylysine hydrobromide 3 gave the reactive homopolymer 4, whose chloroacetamide functions allowed subsequent coupling with thiol-containing components. Water-soluble homopolymers such as 8 and 13 were available by treatment with an excess of hydrophilic thiols. Heteroglycopolymers were obtained via quantitative incorporation of substoichiometric amounts of carbohydrates with a mercapto functionality linked to the reducing end; the remaining chloroacetamide groups were capped with an excess of thioglycerol. A variety of glycopolymers with up to four different components was prepared. The composition and purity of the products were reliably analyzed by H-1 NMR. Generally, the quantitative incorporation of substoichiometric components was verified. The polymer backbone was not altered under the applied reaction conditions, as indicated by very similar polydispersities and degrees of polymerization of starting polylysine 3 and functionalized homo- and heteropolymers 8, 13, and 14. Glycopolymer 25, containing sialyl Lewis(a) and biotin as a functional group for enzyme linked immune sorbent assay, was used for developing cell-free selectin ligand binding assays. The inhibition of E-selectin by glycopolymers 1.6, containing sialyl Lewis(x) (sLe(x)), was evaluated in a cell adhesion assay under flow conditions using activated human umbilical vein endothelial cells and polymorphonuclear neutrophils. The sLe(x) polymers 16 showed no significant inhibition, whereas conjugates with additional charged groups (carboxylates 18, sulfonates 21) in addition to sLe(x) gave 30-35% reduction of the number of interacting cells at the same concentration of 100 mu M sLe(x).