Monosaccharide compositional analysis of glycoproteins using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

Effective and accurate analysis of free monosaccharides and monosaccharides bound to glycoconjugates, including glycoproteins and glycolipids have been achieved through the development of different analytical methods. Although all of these analytical methods appears to be applicable to the quantification of monosaccharides, quantification through coupling of liquid chromatography to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is currently considered to be one the most effective analytical methods. This review focuses on the development of LC-MS methods for the analysis of monosaccharides, and evaluates the different analytical approaches including various ionization and detection techniques that have been used in order to analyze and quantify monosaccharides using mass spectrometry.