Collection And Preservation Of Urinary Proteins Using A Fluff Pulp Diaper

Abstract

Change is the most fundamental property of biomarker. Contrast to the blood, which is under homeostatic controls, urine reflects changes in the body earlier and more sensitive therefore is a better biomarker source. And drawing blood from infants and toddlers is hard and less tolerated. For patients limited by language, giving chief complaint is difficult. Thus, monitoring biomarkers in urine can provide valuable clues for diagnosis of diseases, especially pediatric diseases. Collecting urine from young children and some adult patients is more challenging than collecting it from healthy adults. Here, we propose a method that uses a fluff pulp diaper to collect urine. Urinary proteins were then eluted and adsorbed onto a piece of nitrocellulose membrane, which can be dried and stored in a vacuumed bag. SDS-PAGE and LC-MS/MS analysis indicated that this method is reproducible, and similar proteins were identified as those obtained using an acetone precipitation method. With this simple economical method, it is possible to collect and preserve urine samples from infants, toddlers, and patients with special needs, even for large-scale biomarker studies.