Molecular weight determination of hyaluronic acid by gel filtration chromatography coupled to matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry.

An analytical approach has been described for the molecular weight characterization of enzymatically degraded hyaluronic acid (HA). The approach involved the combined use of aqueous gel filtration chromatography (GFC) with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). Microfractions were collected across an eluting peak from the chromatography system, followed by mass spectrometric analysis of these narrow fractions. The molecular mass determined by MALDI-MS and the signal obtained from the chromatography established a calibration curve for other hyaluronic acid samples analyzed by this GFC system. Results of one HA sample were obtained from both the calibration curve and direct fraction-by-fraction MALDI-MS analysis, and comparison of these results showed reasonable agreement. In contrast, molecular weights resulted from external calibration using dextran and pullullan standards showed drastically different numbers. Therefore, the GFC-MALDI-MS approach is a reliable method for the molecular weight characterization of polydisperse polysaccharides for which suitable calibration standards are unavailable for conventional GFC analysis.