Abstract: Carbohydrate substances are separated or distinguished by a method which involves labelling carbohydrate substances with a labelling reagent comprising a fluorescent naphthalene ring structure having as a substituent a reactive group capable of reacting with a reducing sugar to bind thereto and also having at least one substituent group capable of carrying a charge but which does not react with reducing sugars and does not extinguish fluorescence of the labelling reagent; applying the labelled substances to an electrophoretic gel; and running the gel to cause differential migration of different substances. The preferred labelling reagents are aminoaphthalenesulphonic acids with one, two or three sulphonic acid groups, particularly 8-aminoaphthalene-1,3,6,-trisulphonic acid (ANTS), and 1-amino-4-naphthalene sulphonic acid (ANSA).

Abstract: A carbohydrate structure, possibly in the form of or derived from a glycoprotein or glycolipide, is analyzed by decomposing the structure into various constituent fragments, separating the fragments and viewing light from the separated fragments using a charge coupled device (CCD). Carbohydrate units can be distinguished or separated by gel electrophoresis, e.g. using a relatively dense polyacrylamide gel run using a stacking buffer system. The two aspects can be used separately or in combination.