Approach for Profiling of Glycosphingolipid Glycosylation by Multiplexed Capillary Gel Electrophoresis Coupled to Laser-Induced Fluorescence Detection to Identify Cell-Surface Markers of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells and Derived Cardiomyocytes

Application of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) as tissue transplants in regenerative medicine depends on cell-surface marker-based characterization and/or purification. Glycosphingolipids (GSLs) are a family of highly diverse surface-exposed biomolecules that have been neglected as potential surface markers for hiPSC-CMs due to significant analytical challenges. Here, we describe the development of a novel and high-throughput-compatible workflow for the analysis of GSL-derived glycans based on ceramide glycanase digestion, 8-aminopyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid (APTS) labeling, and multiplexed capillary gel electrophoresis coupled to laser-induced fluorescence detection (xCGE-LIF). GSL glycans were detected with highly reproducible migration times after repeated analysis by xCGE-LIF. We built up a migration time database comprising 38 different glycan species, and we showed exemplarily that as few as 10 pg of fucosyl lactotetra was detectable. GSL glycan profiling could be performed with 105 human induced pluripotent stem cells, and we quantitatively dissected global alterations of GSL glycosylation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and hiPSC-CMs by employing xCGE-LIF. In our study, we observed a general switch from complex GSLs with lacto- and globo-series core structures comprising the well-known human pluripotent stem cell marker stage-specific embryonic antigen 3 (SSEA3) and SSEA4 in hiPSCs toward the simple gangliosides GM3 and GD3 in hiPSC-CMs. This is the first description of GM3 and GD3 being highly abundant GSLs on the cell surface of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes