A relatively new proteomic technology platform known as stable isotope labeling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) has been developed to record quantitative changes in in vitro experimental systems. This method allows for monitoring of changes due to various experimental conditi ...

Recent evolution in proteomics approaches from two-dimensional gel electrophoresis to peptide-based “shotgun proteomics” methods has greatly enhanced the abilities of scientists to uncover expression changes among “low abundant” proteins. Shotgun proteomics methods ...

The current protocol describes in the first part the isolation and culture of neural stem and progenitor cells. In the second part, the two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of neural stem and progenitor cells is explained, consisting of sample preparation, first-dimensional isoelec ...

We describe a method for analyzing and sharing gene expression data using a Web-based system, “Gemma.” Gemma is designed to support meta-analysis in a collaborative framework. Gemma allows users to log on, upload their data, annotate and analyze it, and share the data with others. Users can then comp ...

Massive parallel sequencing will become the method of choice for transcriptome profiling. Two protocols have been developed to quantify level of expressions: full-length RNA sequencing (RNA-SEQ) and 3′ tag digital gene expression (DGE). We have studied the performance of 3′ tag DGE profi ...

The brain vasculature, and more specifically the microvasculature, represents a center of interest for the investigation of the brain. Indeed, this tissue at the interface between the circulatory system and the central nervous system (CNS) actively participates in the brain function ...

The development of a variety of high-throughput (HT) technologies in molecular biology has markedly extended its analytical power and has given rise to an exponential jump of accumulation of data. The technologies can be roughly sorted into the ones used to analyze the transcriptome and the p ...

The process of RNA amplification is a stepwise series of molecular manipulations intended to amplify transcriptomic signals from small quantities of starting materials, including single cells and homogeneous populations of individual cell types for microarray analysis and o ...

Microarray expression profiling of the nervous system provides a powerful approach to ascribe activities to genes involved in distinct phases of neural development and function. Expression profiling of neural tissues and cell lines requires isolation of high-quality RNA, ampli ...

Cell heterogeneity is intrinsic to both genetically programmed differentiation and stochastic/epigenetic variation. The scientific and technological challenge is to quantitatively study the nature and extent of the heterogeneity of populations of cells. In order to reach t ...

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a body fluid which has direct contact with the central nervous system, and as such, changes in its composition might be informative about various aspects of the brain. It has been postulated for quite a long time that proteomic analysis of CSF will reveal protein markers r ...

HIV-1 proteins are rarely identified during mass spectrometry-based proteomic profiling studies of body fluids from HIV-1-infected people even when elaborated fractionation schema and highly sensitive instruments are used. Genotyping of HIV-1 isolated from body fluids does n ...

Dynamic properties of the nervous system can now be investigated through mass spectrometry technologies. Generally, the application of these powerful techniques requires the destruction of the specimen under study/examination, but recent technological advances have made it ...

The amino acid content of the central nervous system (CNS) is controlled by the blood-brain barrier. Despite a constant exchange of amino acids in both directions, this interface mediates a net uptake from blood plasma into cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). As in most other cells, amino acids in the brain h ...

Knowledge of the existence of amino acids dates back over a century in many cases, as does knowledge of their existence in proteins (see Vickery and Schmidt, 1931). When amino acids were discovered, their identity was established by isolating and purifying the individual compounds and obtain ...

Amino acids are involved in many metabolic processes and in protein synthesis. In the central nervous system, they also function as neurotransmitters or neuromodulators (Davidson, 1976; Corradetti et al., 1983; Fonnum, 1981, 1984). Numerous studies have demonstrated the excitatory e ...

The coupling of a gas chromatograph (GC) to a mass spectrometer (MS) results in the marriage of two powerful technologies. The tremendous separative power of the GC is coupled to the direct identification and quantitation capabilities of the MS. The MS produces ions by electron bombardment of el ...

1-Dimethylammo-naphthalene-5-sulfonyl chloride (dansyl chloride, Fig. 1) was originally used by Weber in 1952 for the formation of fluorescent conjugates of albumin. Dansyl chloride reacts with primary and secondary amino groups and with phenols. Fig 1Structure of dansyl chlori ...

Certain amino acids are now well established as the transmitters employed by the majority of neurons in the central nervous system (Curtis and Johnston, 1974; Watkins and Evans, 1981; Fagg and Foster, 1983). Investigation of the physiology, pharmacology, and biochemistry of these amino aci ...

The recognition of the significance of amino acids as mediators of chemical neurotransmission in the mammalian central nervous system has grown extensively in recent years, and no fewer than 16 of these simple compounds have been proposed to function as excitatory or inhibitory neurotr ...