Cell Fractionation of U937 Cells by Isopycnic Density Gradient Purification

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This protocol describes a method to obtain subcellular protein fractions from mammalian cells using a combination of detergents, mechanical lysis, and isopycnic density gradient centrifugation. The major advantage of this procedure is that it does not rely on the sole use of solubilizing detergents to obtain subcellular fractions. This makes it possible to separate the plasma membrane from other membrane-bound organelles of the cell. This procedure will facilitate the determination of protein localization in cells with a reproducible, scalable, and selective method. This method has been successfully used to isolate cytosolic, nuclear, mitochondrial, and plasma membrane proteins from the human monocyte cell line, U937. Although optimized for this cell line, this procedure may serve as a suitable starting point for the subcellular fractionation of other cell lines. Potential pitfalls of the procedure and how to avoid them are discussed as are alterations that may need to be considered for other cell lines.