Analysis of pyridylaminated oligosaccharides using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry with a monolithic capillary column

We examined the utility of a monolithic capillary column in the analysis of pyridylaminated oligosaccharides. Fluorescence detection and mass spectrometry were used to monitor a series of oligosaccharides. Although the total-ion chromatogram appeared similar to that obtained with fluorescence detection, the sensitivity of this technique was limited, especially in the case of smaller oligosaccharides. This limitation was overcome by applying selected ion current monitoring. Further, the capillary column also exhibited good reproducibility. We showed that the retention times obtained by using the monolithic capillary column could be converted into the standard data to enable comparison of the experimental data with the existing data. Furthermore, our studies revealed an important difference in the separation profile. i.e., the monolithic capillary column could resolve smaller oligosaccharides to a greater extent. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.