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Updated: May 24, 2026
Mucin Agarose Gel Electrophoresis: Western Blotting for High-molecular-weight Glycoproteins
Published on: June 14, 2016
Detection and enrichment of mucin-5 AC from edible bird's Nest
Jun Yin1, Juan Nie1, Hongyuan Chen2
1State Key Laboratory of Discovery and Utilization of Functional Components in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology Ministry of Education, NMPA Key Laboratory for Quality Research and Evaluation of Carbohydrate-based Medicine, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China.
Abstract:
The complex composition of edible bird's nest (EBN) presents considerable challenges for protein extraction, isolation, and identification, which limit comprehensive compositional studies and compromise the accuracy of quality assessment. Therefore, identifying the major nutritional proteins in EBN and establishing a reliable detection method are essential for standardized quality control. After screening and confirming mucin-5 AC (MUC5AC) as a key bioactive component of EBN, a pretreatment protocol involving heating, enzymatic digestion, ultrafiltration, and salting-out process was developed to detect MUC5AC. Untreated and treated EBN samples were subsequently analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to determine the relative content of MUC5AC. The established extraction method significantly improves the detection efficiency of MUC5AC, from 290.70 ng/mL to 1313.33 ng/mL by ELISA, increasing its relative content from 0.45% to 2.08% by LC-MS. This study provides a solid foundation for developing a reliable quantification system for crucial nutritional composition in EBN.
