Mass spectrometry based proteomic analysis of human stem cells: a brief review

Stem cells can give rise to various cell types and are capable of regenerating themselves over multiple cell divisions. Pluripotency and self-renewal potential of stem cells have drawn vast interest from different disciplines, with studies on the molecular properties of stem cells being one example. Current investigations on the molecular basis of stem cells pluripotency and self-renewal entail traditional techniques from chemistry and molecular biology. In this mini review, we discuss progress in stem cell research that employs proteomics approaches. Specifically, we focus on studies on human stem cells from proteomics perspective. To our best knowledge, only the following types of human stem cells have been examined via proteomics analysis: human neuronal stem cells, human mesenchymal stem cells, and human embryonic stem cells. Protein expression serves as biomarkers of stem cells and identification and expression level of such biomarkers are usually determined using two-dimensional electrophoresis coupled mass spectrometry or non-gel based mass spectrometry.