Monosaccharide analysis of glycoconjugates by anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection

Abstract

The method of anion exchange chromatography followed by pulsed amperometric detection (AE-PAD; Johnson, D. C., and Polta, T. Z. (1986) Chromatogr. Forum 1, 37–44) has been applied to the compositional analysis of glycoconjugates. Using 22 m m NaOH as a column effluent, underivatized fucose, galactosamine, glucosamine, galactose, glucose, and mannose were readily separated in 15 min at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. The limit of quantification of the monosaccharides was better than 100 pmol (signal to noise ratio 184:1). AE-PAD was employed to quantify the monosaccharides of several glycoproteins, glycopeptides, and oligosaccharides after hydrolysis with 2 m trifluoroacetic acid. Both neutral and amino sugars could be rapidly estimated in a single chromatographic step using AE-PAD. Complete release of N-acetylglucosamine required more vigorous hydrolysis conditions (Lee, Y. C. (1972) in Methods in Enzymology (Ginsburg, V., Ed.), Vol. 28, pp. 63–73, Academic Press, New York). In both glycopeptides and oligosaccharides, approximately one less residue of Man than predicted was determined. Both AE-PAD and liquid chromatographic analysis of borate-monosaccharide complexes with fluorometric detection (Mikami, H., and Ishida, Y. (1983) Bunseki Kagaku 32, E207–E210) gave similar quantification of mannose and other sugars. The capability of rapid, sensitive quantification of underivitized monosaccharides should facilitate structural analysis of glycoconjugates.