A simple aqueous two-phase extraction system （ATPS） of PEG/phosphate was proposed for selective separation and enrichment of proteins. The combination of ATPE with HPLC was applied to identify the partition of proteins in two phases. Five proteins （bovine serum albumin, Cytochrome C, lysozyme, myoglobin, and trypsin） were used as model proteins to study the effect of phosphate concentration and pH on proteins partition. The PEG/phosphate system was firstly applied to real human saliva and plasma samples, some proteins showed obviously different partition in two phases. The primary results manifest the selective separation and enrichment of proteins in ATPS provided the potential for high abundance proteins depletion in proteomics. ~ 2009 Feng Qu. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
