A novel methodology for the analysis of membrane and cytosolic sub-proteomes of erythrocytes by 2-DE

Abstract

With the aim of studying a wide cohort of erythrocyte samples in a clinical setting, we propose here a novel approach that allows the analysis of both human cytosolic and membrane sub-proteomes. Despite their simple structure, the high content of hemoglobin present in the red blood cells (RBCs) makes their proteome analysis enormously difficult. We investigate here different strategies for isolation of the membrane and cytosolic fractions from erythrocytes and their influence on proteome profiling by 2-DE, paying particular attention to hemoglobin removal. A simple, quick and satisfactory approach for hemoglobin depletion based on HemogloBind^™ reagent was satisfactorily applied to erythrocyte cells, allowing the analysis of the cytosolic sub-proteome by 2-DE without major interference. For membrane proteome, a novel combined strategy based on hypotonic lysis isolation and further purification on minicolumns is described here, allowing detection of high molecular weight proteins (i.e. spectrin, ankyrin) and well-resolved 2-DE patterns. An aliquot of the membrane fraction was also in solution digested and analyzed by nano-LC coupled to an LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometer. A total of 188 unique proteins were identified by this approach. This study sets the basis for future clinical studies where the erythrocyte cell may be implicated.