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This review summarises the literature on the synthesis and applications of fluorescently labelled carbohydrates. Due to the sensitivity of fluorescent detection, this approach provides a useful tool to study processes involving glycans. A few general categories of labelling are presented, in situ labelling of carbohydrates with fluorophores, fluorescently labelled glycolipids, fluorogenic glycans, pre-formed fluorescent glycans for intracellular applications, glycan-decorated fluorescent polymers, fluorescent glyconanoparticles, and other functional fluorescent glycans.

The external envelope glycoprotein (gp 160) of HIV-1 is a candidate for vaccines against AIDS. Most of the surface of the molecule is shielded by carbohydrate and the structures and locations of these glycans may be important in defining the immunogenicity of the viral coat. Here we report a sensitive mapping strategy for profiling and analysing the N-glycosylation of gp160, based on chemical release of glycans, fluorescent labelling and HPLC analysis. This approach has been validated in terms of establishing the reproducibility of all steps in the analytical procedure and on overall reproducibility on a run-to-run and day-to-day basis. The validated analysis technique was used to monitor the consistency of N-glycosylation of one rgp 160 vaccine candidate produced in bovine hamster kidney (BHK) cell culture. It was demonstrated that the variation in the glycan profiles of 6 different lots was not statistically significant.