Obtaining data using Maldi mass spectrometry
Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
mass spectrometry has been used for diagnosis, for monitoring disease progression,
for drug discovery and for toxicology studies. It can reliably detect hundreds of
proteins with molecular weights up to 30,000.
Richard M. Caprioli and colleagues
at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., reviewed advances in
the technique. In their labs, they have employed time-of-flight mass spectrometers
from Applied Biosystems of Framingham and from Bruker Daltonics of Billerica, both
in Massachusetts.
To obtain the best-quality data, the
reviewers recommend using fresh tissue and freezing it in liquid nitrogen, while
carefully avoiding contamination. They suggest cutting the tissue into 5- to 20-μm
sections, completely drying them, applying a fixative and placing the tissue on
a glass slide coated with indium tin oxide. They recommend using sinapinic acid
as the matrix solution and depositing it using the electrospray method. The matrix
can be deposited automatically using a robotic printer, such as the one they used
from Labcyte of Sunnyvale, Calif. (
Journal of Proteome Research, published
online Oct. 19.)
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