Recent advances in capillary electrophoresis and capillary electrochromatography of peptides

An overview of the recent developments in the applications of high-performance capillary electromigration methods, namely zone electrophoresis, isotachophoresis, isoelectric focusing, affinity electrophoresis, electrokinetic chromatography, and electrochromatography, to analysis, preparation, and physicochemical characterization of peptides is presented. New approaches to the theoretical description and experimental verification of the electromigration behavior of peptides and the methodological aspects of capillary electroseparations of peptides, such as rational selection of separation conditions, sample treatment, and suppression of adsorption, are discussed, and new developments in individual separation modes and new designs of detection systems applied to peptide separations are shown. Several types of applications of capillary electromigration methods to peptide analysis are presented: quality control and purity tests, determination in biomatrices, monitoring of physical and chemical changes and enzymatic conversions, amino acid and sequence analysis, and peptide mapping. The examples of micropreparative peptide separations are given and capabilities of capillary electromigration techniques to provide important physicochemical characteristics of peptides are demonstrated.