Department of Biochemistry, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania.
Electrophoresis. 2011 Jun;32(13):1591-609. doi: 10.1002/elps.201100067. Epub 2011 May 23.
Gangliosides, sialic-acid-containing glycosphingolipids are involved in numerous biological processes and play essential roles in severe pathologies, with predilection in those of the central nervous system. Formerly, ganglioside composition and quantity were assessed exclusively by thin-layer chromatographic (TLC), immunochemical, and immunohistochemical methods, which have limited effectiveness being unable to detect minor components in mixtures of high heterogeneity. Increased awareness of the biological importance of gangliosides stimulated the development of analytical methods that are better amenable to complex ganglioside mixtures. More recently, MS in online conjunction with high-performance separation techniques brought a significant progress to the field. This review highlights the state-of-the-art development and application of separation methods online coupled to MS for ganglioside analysis. Most original and successful protocols based on GC-MS, LC-MS, and CE-MS are presented here together with the special instrumental and sample preparation requirements to be met for effective ganglioside separation, detection, and structural identification. Finally, the advantages and downsides of each methodology as well as the perspectives for simplification, standardization, and upgrading are assessed.
神经节苷脂是含有唾液酸的糖鞘脂，参与多种生物学过程，在严重的病理中发挥着重要作用，特别是在中枢神经系统的病理中。以前，神经节苷脂的组成和数量仅通过薄层色谱（TLC）、免疫化学和免疫组织化学方法进行评估，这些方法效果有限，无法检测混合物中存在的少量成分和高度异质性。人们对神经节苷脂的生物学重要性的认识不断提高，刺激了分析方法的发展，这些方法更适用于复杂的神经节苷脂混合物。最近，在线 MS 与高效分离技术的结合为该领域带来了显著的进展。本文重点介绍了在线与 MS 结合用于神经节苷脂分析的分离方法的最新进展和应用。本文介绍了基于 GC-MS、LC-MS 和 CE-MS 的最原始和最成功的方案，以及为了有效分离、检测和结构鉴定神经节苷脂而需要满足的特殊仪器和样品制备要求。最后，评估了每种方法的优缺点以及简化、标准化和升级的前景。
