  Because of the outstanding ability of two-dimensional electrophoresis to
separate complex mixtures of intact proteins, it would be advantageous to apply
it to all types of proteins, including hydrophobic and membrane proteins.
Unfortunately, poor solubility hampers the analysis of these molecules. As
these problems arise mainly in the extraction and isoelectric focusing steps,
the solution is to improve protein solubility under the conditions prevailing
during isoelectric focusing. This chapter describes the use of chaotropes and
novel detergents to enhance protein solubility during sample extraction and
isoelectric focussing, and discusses the contribution of these compounds to
improving proteomic analysis of membrane proteins.
