Daoyuan Lia, Lequan Chi, Lan Jin, Xiaohui Xua, Xuzhao Du, Shengli Jia, Lianli Chia*

Carbohydrate Polymers 99 (2014) 339–344

ABSTRACT

Low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) are structurally complex, highly sulfated and negativelycharged, linear carbohydrate polymers prepared by chemical or enzymatic depolymerization of hep-arin. They are widely used as anticoagulant drugs possessing better bioavailability, longer half-life, andlower side effects than heparin. Comprehensive structure characterization of LMWHs is important fordrug quality assurance, generic drug application, and new drug research and development. However, fullycharacterization of all oligosaccharide chains in LMWHs is not feasible for current available analyticaltechnologies due to their structure complexity and heterogeneity. Fingerprinting profiling is an efficientway for LMWHs’ characterization and comparison. In this work, we present a simple, sensitive, and pow-erful analytical approach for structural characterization of LMWHs. Two different LMWHs, enoxaparinand nadroparin, were analyzed using reversed phase ion pair electrospray ionization mass spectrometry(RPIP-ESI-MS). More than 200 components were identified, including major structures, minor struc-tures, and process related impurities. This approach is robust for high resolution and complementaryfingerprinting analysis of LMWHs.