Heat Stabilization of Serum for Standardized Peptide Profiling

摘要

Serum was stabilized directly after centrifugation of blood. We evaluated the effect of heat stabilization by comparing stabilized and non-stabilized serum samples over a defined period of time upon storage at room temperature. Preliminary results indicated that heat stabilization of serum samples reduced the amount of sample degradation, in addition to the already known importance of standardized sample handling. Once a serum sample has been stabilized the peptide profiles remain constant over time. Furthermore, heat stabilization provides an important step in finding labile peptides and/or proteins that are susceptible to proteolytic enzymes. These findings show the promise of this approach with respect to a robust and repeatable sample workup procedure, that is essential for high-throughput in a clinical setting.