Analysis of sulfate esters by solvolysis or hydrolysis

Sulfate esters are found on N- and O-linked sugar chains or glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains. Few sulfatases are available that can enzymatically remove them, so chemical procedures must be used. These procedures rely on the differential sensitivity of sulfates located in different linkages on the sugar. In comparison to the conditions used for enzymatic digestion, those used for chemical digestion are very harsh and cannot be used on protein-bound carbohydrates (except for analytical purposes, as described here). With protein-bound carbohydrates, for preparative purposes, the chains must first be released. This unit describes release of sulfate esters by solvolysis along with a method for monitoring the efficiency of the solvolysis reaction. An alternate procedure provides a scale-up method for using the solvolysis reaction with large amounts of material. Also presented are techniques for both acid and basic hydrolysis to release sulfate esters.