Permethylated Glycan Standards

Permethylated IgG glycan standards for MS analysis

Structural analysis of carbohydrates is a requirement for biopharmaceutical characterisation and may include the determination of the following features: molecular mass, composition of monosaccharides and their configurational and conformational isomers, sequence of monosaccharide residues, presence and position of branches and functional groups and interglycosidic linkages.

Mass spectrometry (MS) is a useful tool in determining the molecular weights but the sensitivity can be low especially where there are many different structures. Carbohydrates often contain carboxy, amino, sulphate, and phosphate groups. The nature and the position of these groups on the residue, as well as the position of this residue within the glycan may be difficult to determine. Permethylation of glycans converts hydrogen groups to methyl groups which renders the glycans hydrophobic; the conversion stabilises sialic acids and can increase signal intensity in mass measurements.

Ludger now offers a permethylated IgG glycan library to use as a system suitability standard during MS analysis. Ludger also offers a C13 version which can be used as an internal standard in the same MALDI chip spot as your C12-labelled permethylated glycans.