A SURVEY OF METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES FOR GLYCOSAMINOGLYCAN PROTEOGLYCAN ANALYSIS AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION BY CAPILLARY-ELECTROPHORESIS/

Proteoglycans participate and regulate several physiological processes via their glycosaminoglycan constituents. For a deeper understanding of how they interact with extracellular ligands as well as with cell b ound effector molecules, the fine chemical structures of their glycosa minoglycan chains must be elucidated. Lately developed capillary elect rophoretic techniques is a powerful analytical tool for the analysis o f glycosaminoglycans, combining a high resolving power with sensitive detection. In this review we describe how depolymerized and intact gly cosaminoglycans/proteoglycans can be characterized by capillary electr ophoresis, relating these analyses to their possible biological signif icance. Conditions for running these separations and the detection sys tems for particular applications are also summarized.