Saliva analysis by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF/MS): from
Massimo Papale1, Maria Carmela Pedicillo, Salvatore Di Paolo
1Molecular Medicine Center, Section of Nephrology, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Bioagromed, Faculty of Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy.
Background:
Saliva is one of the most promising and easy-to-collect source of potential biomarkers of oral and systemic disease. We standardized a protocol suitable for pre-analytical treatment and for the analysis of whole normal saliva by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF/MS).
Methods:
We evaluated the impact of storage time, freeze/thaw cycles, denaturing agents, glycoproteins depletion, centrifugation, type of matrix and ProteinChip used on the quality of the SELDI protein profile. Moreover, we explored the inter-individual and between-sex differences and the changes in the sample composition over the day.
Results:
Saliva was qualitatively stable, in the absence of protease inhibitors, for up to 3 h from the collection at room temperature, although the intensity of a number of peaks slightly decreased between 0 and 3 h and the addition of protease inhibitors did not completely revert this trend. The saliva proteome changed during the day and showed relevant between-sex differences. The protein profile remained stable for up to five freeze/thaw cycles. The addition of denaturing solutions and the depletion of glycoproteins improved the quality of the spectra without affecting their reproducibility.
Conclusions:
We defined a protocol that improved the quality and the reproducibility of SELDI-TOF/MS analysis, thus potentially supporting the search for putative biomarkers of disease.
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