Low-molecular weight plasma proteome analysis using centrifugal ultrafiltration.

The low-molecular weight fraction (LMF) of the human plasma proteome is an invaluable source of biological information, especially in the context of identifying plasma-based biomarkers of disease. This protocol outlines a standardized procedure for the rapid/reproducible LMF profiling of human plasma samples using centrifugal ultrafiltration fractionation, followed by 1D-SDS-PAGE separation and nano-LC-MS/MS. Ultrafiltration is a convective process that uses anisotropic semipermeable membranes to separate macromolecular species on the basis of size. We have optimized centrifugal ultrafiltration for plasma fractionation with respect to buffer and solvent composition, centrifugal force, duration and temperature to facilitate >95% recovery, and enrichment of low-M (r) components from human plasma. Using this protocol, >260 unique peptides can be identified from a single plasma profiling experiment using 100 μL of plasma (Greening and Simpson, J Proteomics 73:637-648, 2010). The efficacy of this method is demonstrated by the identification, for the first time, of several plasma proteins (e.g., protein KIAA0649 (Q9Y4D3), rheumatoid factor D5, serine protease inhibitor A3, and transmembrane adapter protein PAG) previously not reported in extant high-confidence Human Proteome Organization Plasma Proteome Project datasets.