SILAC RPMI 1640

SILAC RPMI 1640 was formulated based on the Roswell Park Memorial Institute (1640) medium for the labeling of amino acids. It does not contain L-arginine or L-lysine and is optimized for labeling experiments in which stable, non-radioactive amino acid isotopes are used for mass spectrometric analysis of protein expression (SILAC = stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture). The modified formulation has no effect on the morphology or growth rates of RPMI 1640-cultured cells.

In the SILAC method, heavy, non-radioactive amino acid isotopes (e.g. arginine with 13C instead of 12C atoms) are added to the cell culture medium. During cell cultivation, the “heavy” amino acid isotopes are incorporated into newly synthesized proteins via normal metabolic processes. The labeled “heavier” target proteins can be quantified and used to study the proteome or intracellular signaling pathways. The content of “heavy” target proteins is measured by mass spectrometry.

The accuracy of the quantification and the simple interpretation of the MS results make the SILAC method a powerful alternative for analyzing the complex proteome (protein properties, protein expression, protein quantification, protein stability) and intracellular signal transduction.