a b s t r a c tIn basic and applied myology, gel-based proteomics is routinely used for studying global changes in the protein constellation of contractile fibers during myogenesis, physiological adaptations, neuromuscular degeneration, and the natural aging process. Since the main proteins of the actomyosin apparatus and its auxiliary sarcomeric components often negate weak signals from minor muscle proteins during proteomic investigations, we have here evaluated whether a simple prefractionation step can be employed to eliminate certain aspects of this analytical obstacle. To remove a large portion of highly abundant contractile proteins from skeletal muscle homogenates without the usage of major manipulative steps, differential centrifugation was used to decisively reduce the sample complexity of crude muscle tissue extracts. The resulting protein fraction was separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, and 2D-landmark proteins were identified by mass spectrometry. To evaluate the suitability of the contractileprotein-depleted fraction for comparative proteomics, normal versus dystrophic muscle preparations were examined. The mass spectrometric analysis of differentially expressed proteins, as determined by fluorescence difference in-gel electrophoresis, identified 10 protein species in dystrophic mdx hindlimb muscles. Interesting new biomarker candidates included Hsp70, transferrin, and ferritin, whereby their altered concentration levels in dystrophin-deficient muscle were confirmed by immunoblotting.Ó 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.In high-throughput biochemistry, mass spectrometry is the method of choice for the fast and reliable identification of proteins in large-scale surveys of physiological or pathological processes [1][2][3]. This makes protein mass spectrometry an integral part of biological network analysis [4] and the discovery of novel disease biomarker signatures [5]. Disorder-specific protein markers play a central diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic role in skeletal muscle pathology and the systematic application of proteomics has greatly expanded the range of biomarkers for neuromuscular disorders [6]. Proteome-wide studies combine protein separation methods, such as high-resolution two-dimensional gel electrophoresis [7-9] and liquid chromatography [10], with sophisticated mass spectrometric techniques to determine potential changes in protein concentration, isoform expression patterns, protein-protein interactions and posttranslational modifications [11][12][13].However, proteomic findings from comparative studies focusing on total protein extracts from highly complex and dynamic types of tissues, such as skeletal muscle fibers, are often limited to mostly soluble and relatively abundant proteins [14][15][16], missing especially the classes of very low abundance proteins and hydrophobic proteins. Thus, to cover all of the assessable constituents in a heterogeneous assembly of proteins with a greatly differing abundance and physicochemical properties, as are found in contr...