A Novel Separation Method of Gangliosides by Non-aqueous Capillary Electrophoresis

Non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) has been developed as a powerful analytical method for a group of compounds having both a weak charge and high hydrophobicity, including pharmaceuticals. Gangliosides bound to lipoproteins are present in serum, and the content of gangliosides is considered to reflect various pathological conditions, such as cancer. Since gangliosides are present only slightly in the living body, capillary electrophoresis is suitable for separation. However, Capillary electrophoresis using an aqueous buffer cannot separate samples with hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties in the ganglioside. In this study, we used an ammonium borate buffer containing 1-propanol solution for controlling the polarity of the buffer solution to suppress ganglioside micellization and to separate each component. We applied the developed NACE method to the analysis of gangliosides derived from mouse brain.