Absolute proteome quantification of highly purified reticulocytes and erythrocytes

Erythrocytes are the most numerous cells of the human body (Sender 2016). Their lifespan in the blood stream is around 120 days. The turnover implies the production of 2 million new reticulocytes each second. Circulating reticulocytes achieve their maturation in 2 to 3 days. During this short time, important modifications occur such as membrane remodeling, removing of remaining organelles and specific elimination of useless proteins such as the transferrin receptor. This remodeling will ensure the optimization of the erythrocyte ability to fulfil its transport functions. We performed a deep label-free quantitative proteome analysis of purified erythrocytes and reticulocytes to better understand the physiology of the erythrocytes and the last steps of their maturation.