Abstract
FACE (fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis) is a method for the separation of fluorophore-labeled saccharides by the use of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The method is characterized by high resolution, high sensitivity, and ease of use without expensive giant-sized machine such as mass spectrometry. It has been found to be useful for the analysis of oligosaccharides profiling of N-linked or O-linked glycans after releasing saccharides from glycoproteins and for sequencing oligosaccharides component. Judging from the importance of oligosaccharides in glycoproteins and the changes in oligosaccharides of cancer cell surface, the method described here is hopeful as a unique analysis tool in the field of basic medical science.
