Development of an HPLC method to estimate hexosamines and its application to determine mucin content in rat and human gastric mucosa.

1. An HPLC analysis of hexosamines and related compounds modified from the Waters Pico-Tag amino acid analysis procedure is described. 2. This method is applicable to determine glucosamine and galactosamine not only in the hydrolyzate of purified glycoconjugate such as gastric mucin and ovalbumin but also in crude materials such as rat gastric mucosal extract and powdered bovine nasal cartilage. 3. Compared with a conventional colorimetric hexosamine determination, sensitivity of this method is almost 100 times higher. 4. By applying this method, a simple but highly sensitive procedure to determine mucin content in a crude stomach specimen of rat and that in a biopsied human gastric mucosa was also developed.