In this issue

Stroke: Rowing speed or brain stopper Olympic rowing teams have strokes. The rest of us have “ischemic events”. The brain's response over time to a brief blockage of circulation is the subject of interest to Costain et al. In particular, they are studying the proteomic response of synaptosomes to coronary occlusion. Using ICAT labeling and nanoLC‐MS/MS, they compare proteomes of synaptosomes at 0, 3, 6, and 20 h of reperfusion after 1 h of focal ischemia. Not too surprisingly, most of the differentially regulated proteins were found to come from mitochondria. Total RNA isolated from the synaptosomes and quantitated by semi‐qPCR demonstrated that the response was not transcriptionally regulated. Gene ontology was also examined. A significant regulatory system that was disrupted was the Psap conversion into four saposin activator proteins. pp. 3272–3291Type II diabetes: Initial proteomic exploration of arterial effects If you are diagnosed with DBII you'll probably have trouble with atherosclerosis...or is it arteriosclerosis? It's almost for sure the latter, a combination of glycation of extracellular proteins, fiber growth in the middle layer of artery muscle, calcification and a variety of changes in the extracellular matrix. The changes lead to arterial inelasticity, wall thickening and stiffness of the medium and larger arteries. To get a better grasp on these events and effects, Jüllig et al. used proteomic techniques to compare arteries from rats with artificially induced diabetes and normal rats. Looking at approximately 400 proteins, they linked clusters of proteins to reactive oxygen species response and structure modification of myofibrils and microfilaments. They also found reduced levels of glycolytic enzymes and mitochondrial electron transport system components. pp. 3367–3378Gels to the max: Blue Native Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis hits >10 MDa Or should these be called “Pictish Gels” after those blue painted residents of northern Scotland who gave the Romans such a hard time at Hadrian's wall? In any case, Strecker et al. have begun the task of taming the high range of these gels and report here on gel formulations that separate mega‐Dalton molecular weight proteins. In much the way pulsed field electrophoresis gave DNA researchers the ability to handle megabase‐sized DNA molecules (once you worked out or found published protocols), BNE gels take us into the unexplored region of Mega‐Da membrane and soluble proteins. At the moment, this is a “Bring Your Own Marker” space, waiting for someone to establish some ultrahigh MW markers' credibility by electron microscopy. But while waiting, these researchers are pushing onward with nuclear pores, mitochondrial complexes, respiratory strings, patches and more, just waiting for the electrophoretic buzz. pp. 3379–3387