Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2005;1(1):98-104.

Impact of freeze-thaw cycles and storage time on plasma samples used in mass spectrometry based biomarker discovery projects

Breeana L Mitchell  1 , Yutaka Yasui, Christopher I Li, Annette L Fitzpatrick, Paul D Lampe
Affiliations

Impact of freeze-thaw cycles and storage time on plasma samples used in mass spectrometry based biomarker discovery projects

Breeana L Mitchell et al. Cancer Inform. 2005.

Abstract

Mass spectrometry approaches to biomarker discovery in human fluids have received a great deal of attention in recent years. While mass spectrometry instrumentation and analysis approaches have been widely investigated, little attention has been paid to how sample handling can impact the plasma proteome and therefore influence biomarker discovery. We have investigated the effects of two main aspects of sample handling on MALDI-TOF data: repeated freeze-thaw cycles and the effects of long-term storage of plasma at -70° C. Repeated freeze-thaw cycles resulted in a trend towards increasing changes in peak intensity, particularly after two thaws. However, a 4-year difference in long-term storage appears to have minimal effect on protein in plasma as no differences in peak number, mass distribution, or coefficient of variation were found between samples. Therefore, limiting freeze/thaw cycles seems more important to maintaining the integrity of the plasma proteome than degradation caused by long-term storage at -70° C.

Keywords: biomarker; long-term storage; mass spectrometry; plasma; proteomics.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Adam BL, Qu Y, Davis JW, Ward MD, Clements MA, Cazares LH, Semmes OJ, Schellhammer PF, Yasui Y, Feng Z, et al. Serum protein fingerprinting coupled with a pattern-matching algorithm distinguishes prostate cancer from benign prostate hyperplasia and healthy men. Cancer Research. 2002;62:3609–3614. - PubMed
    1. Alexe G, Alexe S, Liotta LA, Petricoin E, Reiss M, Hammer PL. Ovarian cancer detection by logical analysis of proteomic data. Proteomics. 2004;4:766–783. [14997498] - PubMed
    1. Baggerly KA, Morris JS, Coombes KR. Reproducibility of SELDI-TOF protein patterns in serum: comparing datasets from different experiments. Bioinformatics. 2004;20:777–785. [147519915] - PubMed
    1. Banez LL, Prasanna P, Sun L, Ali A, Zou Z, Adam BL, McLeod DG, Moul JW, Srivastava S. Diagnostic Potential of Serum Proteomic Patterns in Prostate Cancer. The Journal of Urology. 2003;170:442–446. [12853795] - PubMed
    1. Cushman M, Cornell ES, Howard PR, Bovill EG, Tracy RP. Laboratory methods and quality assurance in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Clinical Chemistry. 1995;41:264–270. [7874780] - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources