Quantitative proteomics using 16O/18O labeling and linear ion trap mass spectrometry

Quantitative proteomics using stable isotopic O-16/O-18 labeling has emerged as a very powerful tool, since it has a number of advantages over other methods, including the simplicity of chemistry, the constant mass tag at the C termini and its general applicability. However, due to the small mass difference between labeled and unlabeled peptide species, this approach has usually been restricted to high-resolution mass spectrometers. In this study we explored whether the high-resolution scanning mode, together with the extremely high scanning speed of the linear IT allows the O-16/O-18-labeling method to be used for accurate, large-scale quantitative analysis of proteomes. A protocol, including digestion, desalting, labeling, MS and quantitative analysis was developed and tested using protein standards and whole proteome extracts. Using this method we were able to identify and quantify 140 proteins from only 10 mu g of a proteome extract from mesenchymal stem cells. Relative expression changes larger than twofold can be identified with this method at the 95% confidence level. Our results demonstrate that accurate quantitative analysis using O-16/O-18 labeling can be performed in the practice using linear IT MS, without compromising large-scale peptide identification efficiency.