Alkali-stable oligosaccharides isolated by hydrazinolysis of M and N blood group glycoproteins.

Three alkali-stable oligosaccharides free of amino acids were purified from hydrazinolysis products of M or N blood group glycoprotein. These three oligosaccharides differed in the content of sialic acid and contained similar amounts of other carbohydrate components. The asparagine-linked oligosaccharides, obtained by strong alkaline degradation of M glycoprotein, showed similar electrophoretic mobilities and chemical composition to the oligosaccharides obtained by hydrazinolysis. It indicates that hydrazinolysis does not give a substantial degradation of carbohydrates of alkali-stable oligosaccharides of human red cell glycoprotein.