Glycosphingolipids periodate oxidation

To determine the position of glycosidic bonds in glycosphingolipids, periodate oxidation and methylation are widely used. A characteristic feature of the periodate oxidation of glycosphingolipids is the stability, to oxidation under mild conditions,179 of the D-glucose residue that is located at the beginning of the carbohydrate chain and substituted at 0-4 this seems to be associated with steric hindrance caused by the close location of the lipid moiety. 

B. B. Reinhold, S.-Y. Chan, S. Chan, and V. N. Reinhold, Profiling glycosphingolipid structural detail Periodate oxidation, electrospray, collision-induced dissociation and tandem mass spectrometry, Org. Mass Spectrom., 29 (1994) 726-746. 

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