Protein carbonylation detection methods: A comparison
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Updated: Feb 5, 2026

Determination of Carbonyl Functional Groups in Bio-oils by Potentiometric Titration: The Faix Method
Published on: February 7, 2017
Esra'a Alomari1, Stefano Bruno1,2, Luca Ronda3,2
1Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
Abstract:
The data reported here are a comparison among four different methods for the detection of carbonylated proteins, a validated biomarker of oxidative stress. The reference samples were heart and kidney extracts of Guinea pigs transfused with hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (Alomari et al. FRBM, [11]). We measured the carbonyl content of organ extracts by using i) the Levine spectrophotometric method, which takes advantage of the chromogenic reaction of carbonyl groups with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH), ii) a commercially available ELISA assay based on an anti-DNPH antibodies, iii) a commercially available Western blot method based on anti-DNPH antibodies and iv) an in-gel detection approach with the fluorophoric reagent fluorescein-5-thiosemicarbazide. The former two methods measure total protein carbonylation of a sample, whereas the latter two require an electrophoretic separation and therefore potentially allow for the identification of specific carbonylated proteins.
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