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Electrophoresis for the analysis of heparin purity and quality
Author(s) -
Volpi Nicola,
Maccari Francesca,
Suwan Jiraporn,
Linhardt Robert J.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.201100479
Subject(s) - chromatography , heparin , electrophoresis , chemistry , capillary electrophoresis , quality (philosophy) , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
The adulteration of raw heparin with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate ( OSCS ) in 2007–2008 produced a global crisis resulting in extensive revisions to the pharmacopeia monographs and prompting the FDA to recommend the development of additional methods for the analysis of heparin purity. As a consequence, a wide variety of innovative analytical approaches have been developed for the quality assurance and purity of unfractionated and low‐molecular‐weight heparins. This review discusses recent developments in electrophoresis techniques available for the sensitive separation, detection, and partial structural characterization of heparin contaminants. In particular, this review summarizes recent publications on heparin quality and related impurity analysis using electrophoretic separations such as capillary electrophoresis ( CE ) of intact polysaccharides and hexosamines derived from their acidic hydrolysis, and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis ( PAGE ) for the separation of heparin samples without and in the presence of its relatively specific depolymerization process with nitrous acid treatment.