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Comparing different techniques for obtaining molecular size distributions of glycogen

Wan, Yujun ; Chua, Sheena M.H. ; Yao, Yin ; Adler, Lewis ; Navarro, Marta ; Roura, Eugeni ; Tilley, Richard D. ; Li, Changfeng ; Nilsson, Lars LU and Gilbert, Robert G. , et al. (2023) In European Polymer Journal 201.
Abstract

Glycogen is a hyperbranched glucose polymer, serving as a major energy reservoir in animals. Characterization of the size distributions of complex branched polysaccharides helps in the understanding of their structural and functional properties. This study compared the effectiveness of various techniques in analyzing glycogen size distributions, namely size-separation-based techniques (size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and asymmetric-flow field-flow fractionation (AF4)) and imaging-based methods (transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM)). SEC and AF4 gave similar glycogen size distributions. TEM was suboptimal for obtaining size distributions due to the difficulty of preventing... (More)

Glycogen is a hyperbranched glucose polymer, serving as a major energy reservoir in animals. Characterization of the size distributions of complex branched polysaccharides helps in the understanding of their structural and functional properties. This study compared the effectiveness of various techniques in analyzing glycogen size distributions, namely size-separation-based techniques (size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and asymmetric-flow field-flow fractionation (AF4)) and imaging-based methods (transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM)). SEC and AF4 gave similar glycogen size distributions. TEM was suboptimal for obtaining size distributions due to the difficulty of preventing aggregation artifacts during sample preparation. AFM appeared to avoid the problem, but the size distributions so obtained had substantially lower resolution and were much more laborious to acquire. The microscopy-based techniques, especially TEM, do however provide richer morphological information on individual particles than do SEC and AF4. These results suggest that combining size-separation and microscopy (imaging) techniques could provide a holistic view of glycogen size distribution and morphology, which may also be applicable to the characterization of other complex branched polymers.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Asymmetric-flow field-flow fractionation, Atomic force microscopy, Glycogen, Size distribution, Size exclusion chromatography, Transmission electron microscopy
in
European Polymer Journal
volume
201
article number
112518
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85175428061
ISSN
0014-3057
DOI
10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2023.112518
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0f648682-21df-4ce7-9395-644f0b4cc263
date added to LUP
2023-11-24 11:58:26
date last changed
2023-11-27 09:02:38
@article{0f648682-21df-4ce7-9395-644f0b4cc263,
  abstract     = {{<p>Glycogen is a hyperbranched glucose polymer, serving as a major energy reservoir in animals. Characterization of the size distributions of complex branched polysaccharides helps in the understanding of their structural and functional properties. This study compared the effectiveness of various techniques in analyzing glycogen size distributions, namely size-separation-based techniques (size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and asymmetric-flow field-flow fractionation (AF<sup>4</sup>)) and imaging-based methods (transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM)). SEC and AF<sup>4</sup> gave similar glycogen size distributions. TEM was suboptimal for obtaining size distributions due to the difficulty of preventing aggregation artifacts during sample preparation. AFM appeared to avoid the problem, but the size distributions so obtained had substantially lower resolution and were much more laborious to acquire. The microscopy-based techniques, especially TEM, do however provide richer morphological information on individual particles than do SEC and AF<sup>4</sup>. These results suggest that combining size-separation and microscopy (imaging) techniques could provide a holistic view of glycogen size distribution and morphology, which may also be applicable to the characterization of other complex branched polymers.</p>}},
  author       = {{Wan, Yujun and Chua, Sheena M.H. and Yao, Yin and Adler, Lewis and Navarro, Marta and Roura, Eugeni and Tilley, Richard D. and Li, Changfeng and Nilsson, Lars and Gilbert, Robert G. and Sullivan, Mitchell A.}},
  issn         = {{0014-3057}},
  keywords     = {{Asymmetric-flow field-flow fractionation; Atomic force microscopy; Glycogen; Size distribution; Size exclusion chromatography; Transmission electron microscopy}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{European Polymer Journal}},
  title        = {{Comparing different techniques for obtaining molecular size distributions of glycogen}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2023.112518}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2023.112518}},
  volume       = {{201}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}