Ion-pairing liquid chromatography with on-line electrospray ion trap mass spectrometry for the structural analysis of N-unsubstituted heparin/heparan sulfate

The rare N-unsubstituted glucosamine (GlcNH3+) residues in heparan sulfate (HS) have important biological and pathophysiological roles. In this study, a high-resolution method for the separation and analysis of N-unsubstituted disaccharides of heparin/HS is described. Four N-unsubstituted disaccharides, together with eight N-substituted species, can be well-separated by ion-pair reverse-phase ultra-performance liquid chromatography. Each disaccharide can then be detected and its relative abundance quantified using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in the negative mode. Because of its high sensitivity, without interference from proteins and other sample impurities, this method is particularly useful in the analysis of low content GlcNH3+ residues in small amounts of biological materials, eg. sera, tissue and cell culture-derived samples. This would lead to a better understanding of the biological origin of GlcNH3+ residues and their increasingly important function in human health and disease.