Silica-based lectin microcolumns are described in this study together with the chemical procedures necessary for their preparation. The analytical merits of Canavalia ensiformis and Sambucus nigra lectins, [immobilized on activated macroporous silica], such as binding capacity, trapping reproducibility, and substrate selectivity, have been evaluated using model glycoproteins. The described microcolumns are applicable to high-pressure analytical schemes utilizing microvalving procedures, washing steps, and quantitative desorption for LC/MS analysis. The described analytical systems are amenable to the applications aiming at fractionation of complex glycopeptide mixtures and determination of the sites of glycosylation.High-performance affinity chromatography (HPAC) offers a number of advantages 1-4 over the classical and commonly used chromatographic technique which utilizes various immobilized ligands to retain selectively an analyte or a group of analytes. These advantages primarily include speed, ease of automation, and the application versatility. During the past decade, HPAC has been employed in biomolecular purification and enrichment and chiral separations, as well as in the study of biological interactions. 5-7 The success of any affinity chromatography, including HPAC, is largely dependent on chemical procedures employed in the attachment of a small-molecule ligand or an interacting biopolymer to a respective chromatographic support. 8-10 Their immobilization should not interfere with the native state of a ligand, facilitating access of analyte molecules and proper interactions.Lectins comprise a group of proteins with unique affinities toward carbohydrate structures. They have long been used in biomolecular isolation, carbohydrate chemistry, and histochemistry, and more recently as the mimicking agents in intercellular interaction studies. For a number of years, lectins have been utilized in various glycoprotein isolation efforts, 11-14 albeit few addressed the quantitative aspects of this approach. 15,16 Lectins with different specificities toward oligosaccharides have been immobilized to agarose and other conventional biochemical matrixes. 11-14 Some of these column materials have been commercialized. In addition, lectins have been immobilized to magnetic beads, 17 gold foils, 18 silica materials, 19-21 and to affinity membranes. 22The uses of lectins in contemporary glycoproteomics and glycomics are likely to grow due to the frequent needs for fractionation and preconcentration for high-sensitivity mass spectrometry (MS). 23 Although glycoproteins and glycopeptides could be fractionated through lectins with different specificity, in most reported cases, lectin affinity procedures were employed to isolate the entire pools of glycoconjugates rather than specific structures. 24,25 Consequently, wheat germ agglutinin and concanavalin A have been widely used because of their broad specificity. Although it is assumed that different glycoproteins produced by a certain cell type possess a similar type...