The combination of normal-phase and reverse-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography with NMR for the isolation and characterization of oligosaccharide alditols from ovarian cyst mucins.

Normal-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) on amino-bonded silica with elution by aqueous acetonitrile is shown to be an especially suitable complement to reverse-phase HPLC on octadecyl silica for the fractionation of oligosaccharide alditols produced by alkaline borohydride degradation of mucin glycoproteins. The former technique separates well on the basis of molecular size, while the latter method shows selectivity for stereoisomers. Stereoisomeric pairs of tetra-, penta- and hexasaccharide alditols show relative retention times ranging from 3 to 12, resulting in excellent preparative separations in reverse-phase chromatography. From a single ovarian cyst glycoprotein, H and Lewis b active, 13 oligosaccharides, representing essentially the entire carbohydrate content, have been isolated. The structures of 12 of the oligosaccharides have been determined by 1H-NMR spectroscopy. For those oligosaccharides which have been isolated from other sources and whose NMR spectra have been previously reported, unambiguous structural identification follows directly. Structures of oligosaccharides differing by only one or two residues from those whose NMR spectra are known may be deduced by a simple algorithm utilizing chemical shift analogies.