An update on saccharide arrays.

Saccharide arrays are powerful tools to investigate the saccharide-mediated recognition events in high-throughput mode. Many methods have been used to immobilize the saccharides on support surface in the array format. The array-based technologies were widely utilized to analyze the characters of saccharide-binding lectins and antibodies, quantitatively determine saccharide-protein interactions, detect cells and pathogens, identify disease-related anti-saccharide antibodies for diagnosis, and fast assess substrate specificities of glycosyltransferases. This review has mainly summarized the fabrication methods of saccharide arrays and their applications in recent years.