Effect of Separation Temperature on Structure Specific Glycan Migration in Capillary Electrophoresis

Temperature dependent differential migration shifts were studied in capillary electrophoresis between linear (maltooligosaccharides) and branched (sialylated, neutral and core fucosylated biantennary IgG glycans) carbohydrates. Background electrolytes without as well as with low and high molecular weight additives (ethylene glycol, linear polyacrylamide and poly(ethylene oxide)) were investigated for this phenomena in the temperature range of 20-50 degrees C. Glucose unit (GU) value shifts were observed with increasing temperature for the all IgG glycans both in additive-free and additive-containing background electrolytes, emphasizing the importance of tight temperature control during glycosylation analysis by capillary electrophoresis. The activation energy concept was applied to understand the structure specific electrophoretic migration of the different sugar molecules. Activation energy values were derived from the slopes of the Arrhenius plots of logarithmic mobility vs reciprocal absolute temperature and compared for the linear and branched sugars as well as for the various background electrolyte additives.