Brush borders (microvilli) are cell membranespecialized structures that function mainly as high-throughput absortive/secretory areas. It has been well-established that brush borders are particularly rich inmembrane lipids characteristic to lipid rafts. Here, wereport 57 proteins identified from microvillous membranes (MVM) isolated from human syncytiotrophoblastcells using an experimental method that avoids the useof nonionic detergents. About 60% of the proteins reported here have been described previously as lipid-raftspecific. Well-known lipid raft-markers such as AnnexinA2 and alkaline phosphatase were identified. Cytoskeletonstructural constituents and proteins related with thecontrol and modulation of the cytoskeletal architecture aswell as the regulation of the interaction of cytoskeletalconstituents with the cell membrane and particularly withlipid raft domains were found (Ezrin, IQGAP1 and 2,EBP50). Other proteins identified include signal transduction molecules, such as Ras-related protein Rab-1B andRab-7, and ADP-ribosylation factor 1. Several proteinsharbor putative post-translational modifications that favorits localization in the lipid-raft environment, such as GPI(alkaline phosphatase and 5'-nucleotidase) and myristoylation (BASP1 and MARCKS). On the whole, this extensive description demonstrates from the protein composition point of view that brush border membranes areindeed highly enriched in lipid raft microdomains.Keywords: lipid raft
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brush border
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syncytiotrophoblast
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multidimensional chromatography-nano ESI-MS/MS
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in-solution digestion