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Updated: Feb 19, 2026

Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Glycosphingolipid Antigens
Published on: April 16, 2013
Glycan analysis by ion mobility-mass spectrometry and gas-phase spectroscopy
1Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustr. 3, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
Due to the existence of numerous isomers, the in-depth analysis of glycans represents a major challenge. Currently, the majority of glycans are analysed using mass spectrometry (MS)-based techniques, which can provide information on regioisomers but usually fail to differentiate stereoisomers. A promising approach to overcome this limitation is to implement ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) as an additional gas-phase separation dimension. This review highlights recent developments in which IM-MS was used as a tool for comprehensive glycan analysis or as rapid screening method for glycan feature analysis. Furthermore, we summarize a series of very recent investigations in which gas-phase spectroscopy is applied to study glycans and discuss the potential of the hyphenation between IM-MS and infrared (IR) spectroscopy as a future tool for glycomics and glycoproteomics.
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