The human plasma and serum proteome

Abstract

Human plasma and serum are the preferred specimens for noninvasive studies of normal and disease-associated proteins in the circulation and arising from cells throughout the body. The attributes of extreme complexity, very wide dynamic range, genetic and physiological variation, endogenous and ex vivo modifications, and incompleteness of sampling by mass spectrometry all represent major challenges to reproducible, high-resolution, high-throughput analyses of the plasma proteome. This chapter summarizes the major reports to date identifying proteins in normal individuals and identifies paths to increased use of proteomics methods with human specimens for biomarker discovery and application in various diseases.