Determination of sugars can be performed by several different strategies, depending on the purpose of the analysis. For determination of soluble sugars in e.g. tissues or fluids methanol/water extraction combined with GC-MS is the most reliable method with which  several classes of sugars, such as pentoses, hexoses, disaccharides and trisaccharides can be detected. With application of this method, a data table consisting of peak areas for identified sugars is obtained. The sugar levels are not expressed as nmol/ml plasma or nmol/mg tissue. Instead, their levels are expressed as peak areas normalized to internal standard glucose or sucrose, which can be compared between the analyzed samples.

GENERAL INFORMATION
NUMBER OF SAMPLES: 50-100 samples (analysis of fewer or more samples has to be discussed with SMC).
MATRICES: Plasma, serum, CSF, Arabidopsis, Populus, bacteria, cell cultures and yeast (other matrices have to be communicated with SMC).

INCLUDED IN THE ANALYSIS

• Sample preparation (e.g. methanol/water extraction)
• Analysis by GC-MSTOF
• Quality assurance of the analysis
• Targeted data analysis for sugars (eg. pentoses, hexoses, disaccharides)
• Initial statistical evaluation of the generated data according to the question asked in the project (multivariate and univariate data analysis)
• Storage of pooled sample for possible future extended identification (extended identification is not included)
• Report and feedback
• Archiving of raw data
• SMC will not be listed as co-authors on a future publication but will be acknowledged