Lithostatine concentration is not useful for assessing the preanalytical variations in biobanked urine samples

Proteomic research requires high-quality, standardized samples. Quality control (QC) biomarkers, which are sensitive to the collection, processing or storage conditions, would be useful tools to identify compromised samples. This study evaluates the usefulness of renal lithostatine as a QC tool for urine sample processing in daily biobank work. Four factors (pre-analytical variations) were examined for their effect on renal lithostatine as measured by ELISA: time from sample collection to centrifugation, number of specimen freeze-thaw cycles, specimen preservation with protease inhibitors, and the inclusion or exclusion of urinary sediment.