Best loading control for plasma membrane fraction samples

[DenCol]

When running a Western on membrane protein fractions, is there a preferred loading control ? Can the old reliables alpha-tubulin or beta-actin be used?
Thanks

[admin]

I have heard of the use of cadherin as a membrane loading control (or a membrane protein), but even better is to look at similar papers online as you are using and see how they prove purity of the plasma membrane fraction and loading controls.

Loading control as you mention is usually done with a plasma membrane protein or may be sufficient even with just a beta-actin or alpha-tubulin, however would be nice for higher impact papers to show you have the plasma membrane fraction with a membrane control.

[Bonnie]

I was doing some reading on this subject earlier today and found a paper claiming that plasma membrane calcium ATPase (PMCA4) is a good plasma membrane control for RT-PCR, so I would assume it would also be a good one for western blot.

BMC Mol Biol. 2006 Sep 17;7:29.
Plasma membrane calcium ATPase (PMCA4): a housekeeper for RT-PCR relative quantification of polytopic membrane proteins.
Calcagno AM, Chewning KJ, Wu CP, Ambudkar SV.

They showed that the PMCA4 RNA level is the same for a variety of cell types under a variety of treatment conditions. Might be worth looking into.