Biologically active substances 'can be analysed in multiple ways'

The same sample of biologically active substances can undergo analysis using both mRNA microarray and proteomic methods, report researchers.

Amelie Fassbender and colleagues from University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Belgium, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Institute of Primate Research in Kenya were keen to demonstrate that biologically active substances from the same samples can be looked at in different ways.

Their study, published in open-access journal Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology, describes the outcomes of their experiment using mRNA microarray and proteomic analysis with surface-enhanced laser desorption and ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

On their primary aim - demonstrating that both techniques could be used on the same sample - success was seen, with eutopic endometrium successfully extracted and analysed using the two methods.

However, on comparison, the obtained data did not match, with post-translational modifications cited by the researchers as a potential cause of this and no corresponding genes or proteins identified across the two tests.