Analysis of carbohydrate-mediated heterogeneity and characterization of N-linked oligosaccharides of glycoproteins by high performance capillary electrophoresis.

Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) has been investigated as an alternative method to analyze the carbohydrate moieties of glycoproteins. Carbohydrate-mediated microheterogeneity of the recombinant plasminogen activator (rt-PA) was examined. The glycoprotein was resolved in multiple electrophoretic species using CZE but the separation was complicated by adsorption of the molecules to the wall of the capillary. The influence of several parameters, such as pH, molarity of the buffer and addition of a cationic additive, on the separation of glycopeptides was investigated. High resolution and reproducible separations of rt-PA glycopeptides carrying hybrid and complex type chains were obtained using either a 100 mM phosphate buffer, pH 6.6, or a 100 mM Tricine buffer, pH 8.2, containing 1.25 mM of putrescine. N-Oligosaccharides from fetuin, t-PA and alpha 1-acid glycoprotein were separated within 20 min on the basis of both their sialic acid content and their structure. The use of an oligosaccharide fingerprinting technique, such as the present one, could have many applications in biotechnology to assess, for example, the consistency of production of a glycoprotein or for analytical glycoprotein chemistry.