The association between aberrant glycosylation of proteins and many cancers, and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases has been known for many years. Altered glycosylation can occur at the onset and during disease progression and identifying these changes at an early stage may greatly increase survival and improve quality of life. However, the identification of these biomarkers has not been easy, mainly due to the structural diversity and numerous possible glycan isomers. Fortunately, glycomics is becoming more feasible due to major improvements in mass spectrometry and separation science. The present review discusses recent methods for mass-spectrometry (MS) based glycomics for the identification of glycan biomarkers. Recent MS techniques with and without coupling to liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis or ion mobility spectrometry are described, and the most recent glycan biomarker studies are presented and future prospects discussed.

蛋白质的异常糖基化与许多癌症以及自身免疫和炎性疾病之间的关联已为人所知多年。糖基化改变可能发生在疾病发作时和疾病发展过程中，在早期发现这些变化可能会大大提高生存率并改善生活质量。然而，主要由于结构多样性和众多可能的聚糖异构体，鉴定这些生物标记并不容易。幸运的是，由于质谱和分离科学的重大改进，糖组学正变得更加可行。本综述讨论了基于质谱（MS）的糖组学用于鉴定糖类生物标志物的最新方法。结合和不结合液相色谱的最新质谱技术，