α2-8 Sialic Acid Polymers: Size, Structure, and Compositional Analysis

✍ Scribed by G. Ashwell; W.K. Berlin; O. Gabriel

• Book ID: 102966282
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 674 KB
• Volume: 222
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-2697
• DOI: 10.1006/abio.1994.1523

✦ Synopsis

A series of three variable assay procedures is described to provide overlapping information on the size, structure, and composition of the (\alpha 2-8) linked polysialic acid chains present on a wide variety of critical cell surface glycoproteins. Technical advances in instrumentation have permitted the development of new applications for a methodology involving the sequential use of periodate and borohydride to modify terminal sialic acid residues. The procedures described here provide a rapid and facile assay for (a) the determination of polysialic acid chain length, (b) the simultaneous identification of (\mathrm{N})-acetylneuraminic acid, (\mathrm{N})-glycolylneuraminic acid, and KDN (deaminated sialic acid) when present in a single preparation, (c) the ability to distinguish qualitatively between reducing and nonreducing polymers, and (d) the ability to determine the number of chains bound to a glycoprotein of known molecular weight. ic 1994 Academic Press, Inc.