Analysis of the carbohydrate composition of glycoproteins by high-performance liquid chromatography.

Overview

A procedure for rapid and sensitive analysis of carbohydrate in glycoproteins is described. After methanolysis and benzoylation of the monosaccharides and carbohydrates of a glycoprotein, the derivatized sugars were analyzed by reverse-phase high-performance chromatography using a Vydac C18 stationary phase and a mobile phase composed of a water/acetonitrile gradient. The advantages of this procedure over previously described methods are (1) the simple binary solvent system which is used requires no buffering salts and (2) separate sets of peaks from individual sugars obviate the usual need to reacetylate sugar amino groups.