Highly sensitive capillary electrophoresis analysis of N-linked oligosaccharides in glycoproteins following fluorescence derivatization with rhodamine 110 and laser-induced fluorescence detection.

We describe a highly sensitive CE with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection for the analysis of N-linked oligosaccharides in glycoproteins using rhodamine 110 as a fluorescence derivatization reagent. One CE separation is performed using a fused-silica capillary and neutral pH buffer conditions and allows for the separation of sialo-oligosaccharides according to the number of sialic acids. An alternate separation is performed using the same capillary and acidic pH buffer conditions, enabling the separation of asialo-oligosaccharides according to their sizes. The derivatization and separation conditions for the analysis of sialo- and asialo-oligosaccharides were optimized. Furthermore, we applied the proposed method for the analyses of N-linked sialo- and asialo-oligosaccharides in glycoproteins (ribonuclease B, fetuin, and recombinant human erythropoietin).