Prestaining of glycoproteins in sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gels by dansylhydrazine.

A new fluorescent prestaining method for gel-separated glycoproteins in 1D and 2D SDS-PAGE was developed by using dansylhydrazine in this study. The prestained gels could be easily imaged after electrophoresis without any time-consuming steps needed for poststains. As low as 4-8 ng glycoproteins (transferrin, alpha 1-acid glycoprotein) could be selectively detected, which is comparable to that of Pro-Q Emerald 488, one of the most commonly used glycoprotein stain. In addition, a subsequent study of deglycosylation, glycoprotein affinity isolation, and LC-MS/MS analysis was performed to confirm the specificity of the newly developed method.