Sample preservation through heat stabilization of proteins: principles and examples.

Due to post-sampling changes, caused by residual enzyme activity in the sample, levels of analytes can change from their in vivo levels so that they no longer accurately reflect conditions in the living system. The Stabilizor(™) system accomplishes elimination of enzyme activity through heat-induced denaturation of enzymes by permanently altering the 3D protein structure of the enzymes. Heat stabilization can be introduced in the workflow either directly after sampling, with the instrument just next to where the sample is taken, or prior to sample homogenization and extraction, when samples are heat denatured directly from a frozen state. Initially, heat stabilization was developed to enable mass spectrometric analysis of neuropeptides. Heat stabilization has since been further developed and applied to a range of samples and downstream protein analysis techniques such as western blot, 2D gels and phosphorylation analysis with LC-MS.