Structure identification of the oligosaccharides by UPLC-MS/MS

Oligosaccharides are recognized as prebiotics. The structure of oligosaccharides is closely related to bioactivity. However, how to precisely and quickly identify the structure remains a bottleneck. In this work, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was developed to analyze the structure of oligosaccharides. Oligosaccharides mainly presented as sodium adduct in the total ion chromagram. By analyzing the parent ions and daughter ions, the structure of oligosaccharides could be identified. The fragmentation patterns of oligosaccharides were summarized for various glycosidic linkages. This protocol showed advantages when comparing with MALDI-TOF-MS/MS technqiue. A mixed oligosaccharides (maltodextrins) were analyzed, and the oligosaccharides composition was completely revealed. These results suggested that UPLC-MS/MS procotol was effective to identify oligosaccharides structure, and could be applied in identification of polysaccharide structure.