Transferrin (Tf) is a glycoprotein that transports iron to cells and has two N-glycosylation sites in humans – at asparagine 432 and asparagine 630. Carbohydrate-deficient Tf, which lacks one or both N-glycans, is the most common marker for congenital disorders of glycosylation.1 Altered Tf glycosylation has also been reported in hepatocellular carcinoma2 and chronic alcohol consumption.3,4 High-throughput Tf purification and glycan characterisation methods are under extensive development in order to facilitate screening of glycosylation patterns for population, genetic and clinical studies.
This application note describes the development of an immunoaffinity purification method on a CIMac analytical column with immobilized anti-transferrin antibodies (@Tf) and the successful transfer of the method to the monolithic 96-well plate (CIM @Tf-0.2 monolithic 96-well plate). The affinity purification method has been used for Tf isolation from human blood plasma followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) analysis of Tf N-glycosylation.