High-sensitivity molecular mass determination of lysozyme prior to MALDI-MS

Sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS) is a powerful solubilizing detergent which is often used during the separation of highly complex protein mixtures by one- or two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) is a widely used technique for mass spectrometric analysis of some protein molecules compared to other techniques. But the presence of SDS or some salts usually leads to signal deterioration when using MALDI-MS. A method for using nitrocellulose membrane as the solid-phase carrier combined with n-octyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside in the matrix highly enhances the sensitivity of the molecular mass determination of lysozyme. This technique has the advantage that the signal-to-noise of the molecular weight profile is improved compared with the mass spectrum and the profile is relatively easy to interpret.