Abstract:

Objective To establish plasma protein spectrum from healthy people, patients with pneumonia and patients with lung cancer, and seek differentially expressed proteins related to early development of lung cancer. Methods Differential gel electrophoresis (DIGE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) were employed to screen differentially expressed plasma proteins among healthy people, patients with pneumonia and patients with stage Ⅰ lung cancer. Results Two dimensional gel electrophoresis patterns of plasma proteins with high-resolution and reproducibility were successfully obtained using DIGE. Seventy-two significantly differentially expressed protein spots were screened with DeCyder 6.5 software. Twelve proteins were successfully identified via peptide mass print using MALDI-TOF-MS, among which seven proteins were reported to be related to cancer, such as acyl-CoA synthetase family member 3, platelet membrane glycoprotein Ⅰb specific antibody, serum amyloid A4, gelsolin, complement factor H, fibrinogen gamma chain and apolipoprotein A-Ⅰ. Conclusion Twelve proteins can be identified by DIGE and MALDI-TOF-MS, and 7 proteins highly expressed in plasma of patients with lung cancer can be screened.

Key words: differential gel electrophoresis, proteomics, plasma, lung cancer