ANALYSIS OF MONOSACCHARIDE COMPOSITION BY CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS

The monosaccharide composition analysis described in this paper employ s capillary electrophoretic separation of sugar monomers liberated fro m glycoproteins or oligosaccharides, by high temperature acidic hydrol ysis. Trifluoroacetic acid was used for sialo- and neutral-sugar hydro lysis, and hydrochloric acid was used for amino-sugar hydrolysis. The neutral- and amino-sugars in the hydrolyzates were then labeled with a charged fluorophore, 8-aminopyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonate, while sialic a cids were labeled with 9-aminoacridone. The stoichiometry of labeling was such that only one fluorophore molecule was attached to each monos accharide molecule. The labeled monosaccharides were then separated by high-performance capillary electrophoresis with laser induced fluores cence detection. The acidic hydrolysis and fluorophore labeling condit ions described in this paper are suitable for monosaccharide compositi on analysis of a wide variety of complex carbohydrates from glycoprote in and/or oligosaccharide samples using capillary electrophoresis.