was performed using 10 μg of in-solution digested sample from
each patient and control. Samples were labeled with iTRAQ 4plex (AB
SCIEX, Framingham, MA, USA) according to the manufacturer’s
protocol, resulting in a total of five sets of 4plex experiments (Figure
from each of the patients and controls was labeled with the iTRAQ
114-tag in all five experiments and used to normalize between experiments.
Each 4plex experiment was diluted 10 times in buffer A (0.5% formic
acid and 5% acetonitrile) and separated on a Higgins Analytical strong
cation exchange (SCX) column (PL-SCX 1000 Å 5 μm 20 ×
2.1 mm column, Higgins Analytical, Rengstorff, CA, USA) equilibrated
in buffer A and connected to an Ettan LC system (GE Healthcare, Wauwatosa,
WI, USA). The peptides were eluted using a 100 μL/min flow rate
and a 1% B/min linear gradient from buffer A to buffer B (buffer B
containing 1 M NaCl). The 15 collected fractions were lyophilized,
redissolved in 100 μL 0.1% formic acid, and desalted using POROS
50 R2 material packed in GELoader tips. The desalted samples were
lyophilized and resuspended in 12 μL 0.1% formic acid and stored
at −20 °C.