Highly sensitive glycosylation analysis of membrane glycoproteins avoiding polymeric contaminants

We established a ‘seize-and-release’ purification method to eliminate polyhexose contaminants for a highly sensitive glycan profiling. Pig liver membrane lysates were pretreated with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant and subsequently dialyzed to remove polyhexose contaminants. From the purified membrane glycoproteins, glycans were released and identified by mass spectrometry. As a result, we clearly obtained N- and O-glycan profiles of a pig liver, which were not achieved without any pre-treatments. This technique demonstrates a powerful approach for enhancing the sensitivity of MS-based glycan profiling.