Coupling capillary electrochromatography with electrospray Fourier transform mass spectrometry for characterizing complex oligosaccharide pools.

To deal with the complexity of the glycan mixtures released from glycoproteins, an efficient form of microcolumn separations, capillary electrochromatography, has been combined with high-performance mass spectrometry (Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance). Contour plots have been generated from the mixtures of O-linked oligosaccharides originated from bovine mucin and bile salt-stimulated lipase, a large glycoprotein enzyme.