Retention behaviour of polyunsaturated fatty acid methyl esters on porous graphitic carbon

Improving the Sensitivity, Resolution, and Peak Capacity of Gradient Elution in Capillary Liquid Chromatography with Large-Volume Injections by Using Temperature-Assisted On-Column Solute Focusing

Capillary HPLC (cLC) with gradient elution is the separation method of choice for the fields of proteomics and metabolomics. This is due to the complementary nature of cLC flow rates and electrospray or nanospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). The small column diameters result in good mass sensitivity. Good concentration sensitivity is also possible by injection of relatively large volumes of solution and relying on solvent-based solute focusing. However, if the injection volume is too large or solutes are poorly retained during injection, volume overload occurs which leads to altered peak shapes, decreased sensitivity, and lower peak capacity. Solutes that elute early even with the use of a solvent gradient are especially vulnerable to this problem. In this paper, we describe a simple, automated instrumental method, temperature-assisted on-column solute focusing (TASF), that is capable of focusing large volume injections of small molecules and peptides under gradient conditions. By injecting a large sample volume while cooling a short segment of the column inlet at subambient temperatures, solutes are concentrated into narrow bands at the head of the column. Rapidly raising the temperature of this segment of the column leads to separations with less peak broadening in comparison to solvent focusing alone. For large volume injections of both mixtures of small molecules and a bovine serum albumin tryptic digest, TASF improved the peak shape and resolution in chromatograms. TASF showed the most dramatic improvements with shallow gradients, which is particularly useful for biological applications. Results demonstrate the ability of TASF with gradient elution to improve the sensitivity, resolution, and peak capacity of volume overloaded samples beyond gradient compression alone. Additionally, we have developed and validated a double extrapolation method for predicting retention factors at extremes of temperature and mobile phase composition. Using this method, the effects of TASF can be predicted, allowing determination of the usefulness of this technique for a particular application.

Analysis of bacterial lipid-linked oligosaccharide intermediates using porous graphitic carbon liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry: heterogeneity in the polyisoprenyl carrier revealed

N-glycosylation of proteins is recognized as one of the most common post-translational modifications. It was believed that N-glycosylation occurred exclusively in eukaryotes until the recent discovery of the general protein glycosylation pathway (Pgl) in Campylobacter jejuni, which has similarities to the eukaryotic system and adds proteins en bloc from a lipid carrier to a protein acceptor. In addition to N-linked glycans, a number of pathogenic bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Neisseria species have been shown to O-glycosylate their proteins through polyisoprene-linked intermediates. To date, most techniques to analyze lipid-linked oligosaccharides (LLOs) of these pathways involve the use of radiolabels and chromatographic separation. With the increasing frequency of reports of bacterial protein glycosylation that proceed through lipid-mediated steps, there is a need for technologies capable of characterizing these newly described bacterial systems as well as eukaryotic pathways from biologically relevant samples in an accurate, rapid, and cost-effective manner. In this paper, a new glycomics strategy based on porous graphite carbon (PGC) liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was devised and validated on the C. jejuni N-glycan pathway. Lipid-linked oligosaccharide intermediates of the Pgl pathway from crude lipid extracts were separated using online chromatography on a capillary PGC column with a chloroform gradient. By exploiting the retention properties of hydrophobic and polar analytes on PGC, baseline separation of LLOs with minor changes in oligosaccharide structure and polyisoprene chain length was obtained. This method is capable of analyzing low levels of LLOs (from approximately 10(6) bacterial cells) and distinguishing the LLOs that differ by as little as one monosaccharide or polyisoprene unit. Furthermore, we have demonstrated for the first time that oligosaccharides of the C. jejuni Pgl pathway are assembled on different polyisoprenes, e. g. C(45), C(60), and apparent hydroxylated forms, in addition to those previously reported (i.e., C(50) and C(55)). The hydroxylated forms of the LLOs are believed to be an intermediate in the degradation of accumulated LLOs for polyisoprene carrier recycling.

Thermodynamic investigations on shape selective separation behaviors of poly(4-vinylpyridine)-grafted silica for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in both normal-phase and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

With the successful implementation of poly(4-vinylpyridine)-grafted silica prepared by grafting-from approach (GF-VP(n)) as a stationary phase for the separation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in normal-phase HPLC, this paper describes the chromatographic retention behaviors of PAHs with GF-VP(n) in reversed-phase HPLC. Significantly higher retention factor along with enhanced shape selectivity were observed with GF-VP(n). Thermodynamic study on the retention behaviors of PAHs with GF-VP(n) in normal-phase and reversed-phase HPLC revealed that retention of PAHs was exothermic in both phases. Furthermore, higher entropic contribution was observed in reversed-phase HPLC compared to normal-phase HPLC.