Is it possible to assay the carbohydrate profile of a cell? - (Mar/30/2012 )

Ok, this might seem like a dumb question, but I was wondering if it possible to assay the carbohydrate profile of a eukaryotic cell. I'm in a grad course where we have to design experiments for a grant proposal, and I'm trying to design experiments to show that the gut microbiota influence obesity by breaking down polysaccharides more efficiently and increasing the caloric content of the food you eat. It's a hypothetical proposal, and I have no background in that field whatsoever. But the question remains, is it possible to assay carbohydrate content of a eukaryotic cell and also be able to determine the abundance of certain carbhydrates? I've looked, and couldn't find much, just papers looking at carbhoydrates on cell wall and such. Anyone know?

Also would it be possible to determine the same thing but for feces? I know there are some papers that look at specific molecules, but is it possible to look at a whole carbhoydrate profile of a sample like feces?

Just a thought.. how about hplc-coupled with refractive index detection or you probably can identify those sugars with mass spec?

zienpiggie on Fri Mar 30 23:16:55 2012 said:

Yea I didn't even think it was possible since I searched and there weren't any papers on it. Luckily someone in my lab saw me working on the proposal and directed me towards someone in our lab who is uses mass spec and NMR to obtain metabolite profiles of cells under different conditions. Helped me a great deal