The Rapid Determination of Neutral Sugars in Biological Samples by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

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Abstract
A procedure for the analysis of neutral sugars in biological specimens is described. The method entails acid hydrolysis of the sample to liberate monosaccharides, which are subsequently derivatized with dansyl hydrazine. The sugar-dansyl hydrazones are separated and quantitated by hplc on a 5μ C18 RadialPak column with a gradient of acetonitrile in 10mM ammonium sulfate at pH 7. Fluorescent detection of the derivatized sugars permits 100-fold increased sensitivity compared to previously published glc methods. This procedure was applied to the neutral sugar analysis of a glycoprotein of known composition (thyroglobulin) and to hard keratin fibers. The latter substance served as a model to critically evaluate the method on a highly resistant biological matrix containing low concentrations of neutral sugars.