Scientists optimise 2-DE samples

Scientists have undertaken a study to optimise the preparation of Human Knee Synovial Fluid (SF) for 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE).

In a report published in Proteome Science, a team from the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Linkou and Chang Gung University College of Medicine in Taiwan noted that proteome analysis is often used in identifying the proteins or biomarkers in knee SF associated with osteoarthritis and other arthritic disorders.

It suggested that 2-DE is often the technique of choice in these investigations but, as disease biomarkers usually appear in low concentrations and may be masked by high abundant proteins, samples need to be prepared in a way to optimise them for this method.

The scientists used a number of methods to prepare the knee SF prior to 2-DE, including treatment with a 2-DE Clean-Up Kit, a combination of the 2-DE Clean-Up Kit and acetone, acetone on its own, and no treatment.

They found that the use of the 2-DE Clean-Up Kit prior to 2-DE provides preferable results.