Abstract

Two dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2DE) has been a core technology of current proteomics for its high resolution and ability to detect proteins with post-translational modifications. This technology has been widely applied in numerous biomedical research projects including biomarker discovery and drug development. The application of narrow-range immobilized pH gradient strips (IPGs) and advanced detection methodologies have increased the resolution of 2DE technology. However, 2DE still suffers from its limitation in unambiguous detection of proteins of lowabundance. To improve this, sample preparation is the first and key step for successful 2DE analysis. This article summarizes current progresses in sample handling and prefractionation aiming to enrich proteins of interest according to their special physical and chemical properties so that the application of 2DE can be greatly extended.

Keywords: Proteomics, sample preparation, protein prefractionation, protein separation, 2DE, two dimensional gel electrophoresis, protein profiling