Characterization of acidic polysaccharides from the mollusks through acid hydrolysis

Uronic acid-containing polysaccharides (UACPs) including glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) exist widely in nature. Herein we propose an elegant methodology to identify UACPs by analyzing their disaccharides produced from the acid hydrolysis using HPLC-MSn upon 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone (PMP) derivatization. Based on the optimization of experimental conditions by the single factor experiment and orthogonal test design, the combination of 1.3 M TFA at 105 °C for 3 h is found to be the optimum. Subsequently, these conditions were applied to investigate the distribution of UACPs in 20 selected species of edible Bivalvia and Gastropoda. PMP-disaccharides derived from UACPs in mollusks were identified by comparing the retention time and mass spectra with those of the reference PMP-disaccharides from hyaluronic acid (HA), chondroitin sulfate (CS), heparin (HP), and AGSP with →4)-GlcA(1→2)-Man(1→ repeating units. The analysis reveals the prevalence of CS in the shellfishes as well as the HP, and existence of three non-GAG UACPs in 7 mollusks.