I am trying to quantitate the amount of a certain protein that is produced in MSC cells that are grown in two diffrerent media/serum formations.

My issue is that the cells have dramatically changed in size due to the different growth medium and therefore if i lyse the same number of cells i have a signifcantly lower total protein level for one treatment. however the same numbe of cells. I feel like if i load the same amout of protein onto my gel and normalize again total protein level (i use stain free gels) that the results will not be accurate and the quantitative value for the protein of interest in the smalller cells will be overcompensated for.

I was also thinking about using house keeping proteins ie actin, but i feel if the cell size changes dramatically so will the actin level seen on the western blot between the 2 treatments.

any help or ideas would be greatly appricated.