Highly sensitive proteome analysis of FACS-sorted adult colon stem cells

In proteomics, multidimensional liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry has become a standard technique to reduce sample complexity and tackle the vast dynamic range. Such fractionation is necessary to obtain a comprehensive analysis of biological samples such as tissues and cell lines. However, extensive fractionation comes at the expense of sample losses, hampering the analysis of limited material. We previously described a highly sensitive multidimensional chromatographic strategy based on a combination of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography and reversed phase chromatography, which allows proteomic analysis with minimal sample losses. Here we apply this strategy to the analysis of a limited number of FACS-sorted colon stem cells extracted from mouse intestine, obtaining a proteome coverage comparable to current methods that generally require 100-fold more starting material. We propose that this alternative multidimensional chromatographic technology will find ample application such as in the analysis of distinct cellular populations obtained by laser microdissection.