Use of Capillary Electrophoresis for Polysaccharide Studies and Applications

Abstract

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) applications to charged polysaccharides are briefly reported. A simple procedure is presented to determine the esterification degree of a hyaluronan derivative. In this case, the degree of substitution was as low as 14%. The molecular weight distribution of mannuronic oligosaccharides mixture produced by hydrolysis of native polymannuronic is readily calculated from peak area of the species resolved by CE on the basis of a specific degree of polymerization. The influence of the applied electric field strength on the free solution mobility of hyaluronan samples is briefly addressed for molar masses of the order of 10(5) and 10(6) g/mol. The data are compared with the results obtained for a 50% galactose-substituted hyaluronic acid (HA). Mobility data obtained as a function of buffer pH for a native HA sample as well as for two galactose-amide HA derivatives, having slightly different degrees of substitution, are presented and discussed in terms of the polymer charge density parameters xi. In most cases, more questions than answers arise from the application of CE to charged polysaccharides. However, perspectives are disclosed for a further understanding of the reliability of CE applied for the structural elucidation of such macromolecules.

A guide to hyaluronan and related enzymes in breast cancer: biological significance and diagnostic value

“…Oligosaccharide analysis by capillary electrophoresis-Capillary zone electrophoresis is a very simple methodology for the quantitation of HA and the other GAGs [28,[58][59][60][61][62][63]. In general, separation in electrophoretic techniques is achieved via charge density, which is related not only to the total charge of the ionic species but also to the size of the species [27].…”