Fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis: a sensitive and accurate method for the direct analysis of dolichol pyrophosphate-linked oligosaccharides in cell cultures and tissues.

Lipid-linked oligosaccharides (LLOs) such as Glc3Man9GlcNAc2-P-P-dolichol are the precursors of asparagine (N)-linked glycans, which are essential information carriers in many biological systems, and defects in LLO synthesis cause Type I Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation. Due to the low abundance of LLOs and the limitations of the chemical and physical methods previously used to detect them, almost all studies of LLO synthesis have relied upon metabolic labeling of the oligosaccharides with radioactive sugar precursors such as [3H]mannose or [14C]glucosamine. In this article, a procedure is presented for a facile, accurate, and sensitive non-radioactive method for LLO analysis based on fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis (FACE). First, LLOs are extracted and partially purified. Next, oligosaccharides released from LLOs are labeled with negatively charged fluorophores: 8-aminonaphthalene-1,3,6-trisulfonate (ANTS) or 7-amino-1,3-naphthalenedisulfonic acid (ANDS). A specialized form of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis is then used to resolve and measure ANTS or ANDS labeled oligosaccharides. Finally, the resolved oligosaccharides are detected and quantified by fluorescence imagers using CCD cameras.