As cells develop and differentiate, they change in function and morphology, which often precede earlier changes in signaling and metabolic control. Here we present a selected reaction monitoring (SRM) approach which allows for the parallel quantification of metabolic regulators and their downstream targets.In particular we explain and describe how to monitor abundance changes of glycolytic enzymes upon PPARγ activation by using a label-free or a stable isotope-labeled standard peptide (SIS peptides) approach applying triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry. We further outline how to fractionate the cell lysate into cytosolic and nuclear fractions to enhance the sensitivity of the measurements and to investigate the dynamic concentration changes in those compartments.
Keywords: Adipocytes; Mass spectrometry; Metabolic control; Proteomics; Quantification; SIS peptides; Selected reaction monitoring.