Anomalous migration of hyaluronic acid oligomers in capillary electrophoresis: Correlation to susceptibility to hyaluronidase

During high-resolution capillary electrophoresis analysis in an electrolyte solution containing a neutral polymer, small oligomers of regularly arrang ed acidic polysaccharides such as hyaluronic acid and N-acetylneuraminic ac id polymers showed reversal of the migration order. This anomalous migratio n was well correlated with their reported biological activity. In the prese nt study, we analyzed hyaluronidase action on the purified hyaluronic acid oligomers using capillary electrophoresis and found that hydrolytic and tra nsglycosylation actions by hyaluronidase were dependent on the molecular si zes of hyaluronic acid oligomers, and well correlated to their migration pr ofiles. Furthermore, fluorescent polarization technique was employed for un derstanding the relationship between molecular size of hyaluronic acid olig omers and their electromigrations.