Rapid determination of oxidized methionine residues in recombinant human basic fibroblast growth factor by ultra-performance liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry with in-source collision-induced dissociation.

The primary structure of the deteriorated recombinant human basic fibroblast growth factor (rhbFGF) was determined by ultra-performance liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/ESI-QTOF-MS) with in-source collision-induced dissociation (CID). The rhbFGFs before and after treatment with hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) were separated using an ACQUITY UPLC BEH300 C18 column (1.7 microm, 150 mm x 2.1 mm i.d.) with a gradient elution of a mixture of water/acetonitrile containing 0.1% formic acid. The separated proteins were then detected by a SYNAPT High Definition Mass Spectrometry system (SYNAPT-MS). Two methionine (Met) residues in the rhbFGF structure were oxidized to Met-sulfoxide (Met-O) in 0.03% H(2)O(2) at pH 2.0. As the result, three peaks, except for the peak of rhbFGF, appeared on the chromatogram. The three proteins corresponding to each peak were estimated as the denatured rhbFGFs including the Met-O residue(s) with TOF-MS. Furthermore, the position of the Met-O residue(s) was efficiently identified by UPLC/ESI-QTOF-MS using the in-source CID technique. The proposed method seems to be very useful for the structural elucidation of proteins, because the oxidized Met residues in rhbFGF were easily and rapidly identified.