Determination of the molecular mass of heparin samples by size-exclusion chromatography applying non-identical standards

The influence of three experimental parameters, temperature, pH and ionic strength of the eluent, on the retention of specific heparin samples and polysaccharides as calibration standards in size-exclusion chromatography was investigated applying chemometric techniques. The results allowed the adjustment of the retention volumes of the studied heparin samples in such a way that the average molecular masses of these compounds could be calculated using polysaccharides as the standards. This approach shows the possibilities of determining average molecular masses of biopolymers using non-identical commercially available standards.