Mass Spectrometry of Gangliosides

This chapter describes protocols for mass spectrometry (MS) applied to the characterization of ganglioside structures and the determination of ganglioside contents. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and electrospray ionization (ESI) are often used to ionize biological materials and this chapter covers three protocols for atmospheric pressure MALDI MS (AP-MALDI MS), liquid chromatography-ESI MS (LC-ESI MS), and LC-ESI MS with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). Purified gangliosides were used in AP-MALDI MS analyses while crude preparations of gangliosides were subjected to LC-ESI MS and LC-ESI MS with MRM. The LC protocol includes conditions for both reversed-phase and normal-phase column chromatography.