Analysis of the human pituitary proteome by data independent label-free liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Studies of pituitary-related disorders would be facilitated by enhanced knowledge of the pituitary proteome. To construct a data set of human pituitary proteins, separate protein extracts were prepared from 15 post-mortem pituitaries and analyzed by data independent label-free nanoflow liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (nLC-MS(E)). The detected mass/time features were aligned and quantified using the Rosetta Elucidator (R) system and annotated using results from Protein Lynx Global Server. The resulting data set comprised 1007 unique proteins, with stringent identification by a minimum of two distinct peptides. These proteins consisted predominantly of enzymes, transporters, transcription/translation factors, cell structure and secreted proteins.