Analysis of carbohydrates in glycoproteins by high-performance liquid chromatography and high-performance capillary electrophoresis.

We describe two methods for the analysis of oligosaccharide chains in glycoproteins by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and high-performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE). O- and N-glycosidically linked oligosaccharides released from glycoproteins can be identified as their borohydride-reduced forms by anion-exchange HPLC with pulsed amperometric detection. N-Glycosidically linked oligosaccharides can also be analyzed as 2-aminopyridine derivatives by HPCE in direct zone electrophoresis mode in an acidic phosphate buffer and zone electrophoresis mode as borate complexes in an alkaline buffer. We also present a convenient procedure for the analysis of the constituent monosaccharides of these oligosaccharides chains by HPLC based on reversed-phase partition mode as 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone derivatives.