Traditionally, cell culture medium in iPSC-derived cell work is not the main focus of the research and often is considered as just "food for cells". We demonstrate that by manipulation of the media and optimized methodology, it is possible to use this solution to study the proteins that the cell secretes (the "secretome"). This is particularly useful in the study of iPSC-derived neurons, which require long culture time. We demonstrate that media can be used to model diseases with optimized incubation and sampling times. The ability not to sacrifice cells allows significant cost and research benefits. In this manuscript we describe an optimized method for the analysis of the cell media from iPSC-derived neuronal lines from control and Parkinson's disease patients. We have evaluated the use of standard and supplement B27-free cell media as well as five different sample preparation techniques for proteomic analysis of the cell secretome. Mass spectral analysis of culture media allowed for the identification of >500 proteins, in 500 μL of media, which is less volume than reported previously (20-40 mL). Using shorter incubation times and our optimized methodology, we describe the use of this technique to study and describe potential disease mechanisms in Parkinson's disease.
Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; induced pluripotent stem cells; mass spectrometry; proteomics; secretome.