Laser-induced fluorescence as a powerful detection tool for capillary electrophoretic analysis of heparin/heparan sulfate disaccharides.

In quest for high sensitivities necessary for determining the disaccharide composition of heparin/heparan sulfate present in trace amounts in biologic samples, an ultrahighly sensitive capillary electrophoresis (CE) method using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection was developed. Heparin/heparan sulfate-derived Delta-disaccharides were derivatized with the fluorophore 2-aminoacridone and resolved by a reversed-polarity CE method. Estimation of the limit of detection in concentration term and limit of quantitation showed that LIF detection of AMAC-derivatives of Delta-disaccharides resulted in 27-744 times higher sensitivity as compared to those detected by UV at 255 nm. These data suggest that CE-LIF is a powerful tool to quantify minute amounts of heparin/heparan sulfate disaccharides. Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.