High-performance liquid chromatography of glycopeptides and oligosaccharides on graphitized carbon columns

High-performance liquid chromatography of carbohydrate materials on graphitized carbon columns (GCC) has some advantages over other types of chromatography. Oligosaccharides and glycopeptides with few amino acids are barely retained on reversed-phase columns even under high salt or low pH conditions, but can be retained effectively on a graphitized carbon column. Moreover, elution of GCC requires concentrations of organic solvents lower than that required for normal-phase columns. The usefulness of graphitized carbon columns is exemplified by the following results: (i) Man9GlcNAc2 with only Asn or Asn-Phe (derived from soybean agglutinin) was not retained by a C18 reversed-phase column, but could be separated on a GCC with a gradient of 10-45% CH3CN in 30 min. (ii) Ribonuclease B glycopeptides obtained by Pronase digestion could be separated on GCC with a gradient of 10-30% CH3CN, but they were not retained on a C18 reversed-phase column even with water as eluent. (iii) Oligosaccharides released from ribonuclease B by endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase were separated from each other and peptides on GCC with a linear gradient of 10 mM NH4OH to 10 mM NH4OH-12.5% CH3CN in 50 min at 70 degrees C. Silica-based columns do not allow such an alkaline eluent. (iv) Chito-oligosaccharides (DP 1-9) are well separated within 40 min on GCC with a gradient (10 mM NH4OH-10 mM NH4OH with 25% CH3CN) at 50 degrees C. Chito-oligosaccharides could not be separated by high-performance anion exchange columns such as Carbopac PA-1.