title: Enrichment and proteomic analysis of plasma membrane from rat dorsal root ganglions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons are primary sensory neurons that conduct neuronal impulses related to pain, touch and temperature senses. Plasma membrane (PM) of DRG cells plays important roles in their functions. PM proteins are main performers of the functions. However, mainly due to the very low amount of DRG that leads to the difficulties in PM sample collection, few proteomic analyses on the PM have been reported and it is a subject that demands further investigation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By using aqueous polymer two-phase partition in combination with high salt and high pH washing, PMs were efficiently enriched, demonstrated by western blot analysis. A total of 954 non-redundant proteins were identified from the plasma membrane-enriched preparation with CapLC-MS/MS analysis subsequent to protein separation by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) or shotgun digestion. 205 (21.5%) of the identified proteins were unambiguously assigned as PM proteins, including a large number of signal proteins, receptors, ion channel and transporters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The aqueous polymer two-phase partition is a simple, rapid and relatively inexpensive method. It is well suitable for the purification of PMs from small amount of tissues. Therefore, it is reasonable for the DRG PM to be enriched by using aqueous two-phase partition as a preferred method. Proteomic analysis showed that DRG PM was rich in proteins involved in the fundamental biological processes including material exchange, energy transformation and information transmission, etc. These data would help to our further understanding of the fundamental DRG functions.
authors.affiliation: Hunan Normal University, Changsha, PR China. xx79911@126.com
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Sha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jianjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jianying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Jixian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Liping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Xianchun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Sonping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liang