Fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis as detection method for carbohydrate-protein interactions

Fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis (FACE) is a straight-forward, sensitive method for determining the presence and relative abundance of individual (oligo) saccharide in a(n) (oligo) saccharide mixture. The single terminal aldehydes of (oligo) saccharides were tagged with the charged fluorophore 8-aminonaphthalene-1,3,6-trisulfonate (ANTS), and separated with high resolution on the basis of size by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. ANTS fluorescence labeling is not biased by (oligo) saccharide length. Therefore, band fluorescence intensity is directly related to the relative abundance of individual (oligo) saccharide moieties in heterogeneous sample. In the same time, it also indicates that FACE can be used to investigate the interactions of carbohydrates and proteins.