Analysis of Pancreatic Extracellular Matrix Protein Post-Translational Modifications via Electrostatic Repulsion-Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography Coupled with Mass Spectrometry

The pancreas is a vital organ with digestive and endocrine roles, and diseases of the pancreas affect millions of people yearly. A better understanding of the pancreas proteome and its dynamic post-translational modifications (PTMs) is necessary to engineer higher fidelity tissue analogues for use in transplantation. The extracellular matrix (ECM) has major roles in binding and signaling essential to the viability of insulin-producing islets of Langerhans. To analyze post-translational modifications (PTMs) in the pancreas, native and decellularized tissues from four donors were analyzed.