Capillary and slab gel electrophoresis profiling of oligosaccharides.

Capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescent detection, a one-dimensional version of the well-established planar analytical method of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, has been proven to be a powerful new microanalytical method for profiling complex carbohydrates. In this paper a comparison is presented between the planar high concentration polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis method and capillary electrophoresis of different carbohydrates with respect to performance and efficiency. N-Linked oligosaccharides were released from several glycoproteins, including fetuin, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) envelope recombinant glycoprotein (GP-120), alpha 1-acid glycoprotein and ribonuclease B, using recombinant peptide-N-glycosidase F (PNGase F). Both separation methods involve labeling of the released carbohydrates at the reducing end with the fluorescent dye, disodium 8-amino-1,3,6-naphthalene trisulfonate (ANTS). Fluorophore labeling was followed by separation of the labeled oligosaccharides either by high concentration polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis or capillary electrophoresis.