Synthetic gel of carotid artery plaque.
Atherosclerosis is a complex disease that affects medium and large arteries, leading to the formation and progression of plaque. In this process the proteins play an essential role and as a consequence, proteomic-based strategies examining the protein content of cells or tissues could offer a useful approach for the study of plaque proteins. Due to the heterogeneous cell composition of plaque, proteome analysis of whole lesions is difficult, besides being also complicated by the presence of plasma proteins that cannot be completely eliminated. A good way to study variations in protein expression among series of gels is to construct a synthetic gel. This type of gel is obtained by averaging the positions, shapes and optical densities of spots in a given set of gels. To be included in the synthetic gel, spots must be found in at least three gels. To obtain a profile representative of the proteome of atherosclerotic plaque, cancelling its high variability, we constructed a synthetic gel using an average of ten carotid plaque samples. We then compared it with an equivalent synthetic gel constructed using ten plasma samples from the same carotid surgery patients. For the comparison of two synthetic gels (plasma/plaque) we could discriminate plasma proteins from plaque proteins. Besides analysis of spots common to plasma, the synthetic gel is useful to detect spots exclusive to plaque, thus simplifying a very complex mixture.
Terzuoli
L
L
Department of Internal Medicine, Endocrine-Metabolic Science and Biochemistry, Section of Biochemistry, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
Felici
C
C
Ciari
I
I
Guerranti
R
R
Pagani
R
R
Marinello
E
E
Porcelli
B
B
D000368:Aged; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D016893:Carotid Stenosis / Q000097:blood / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000601:surgery; D015180:Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional; D016894:Endarterectomy, Carotid; D005260:Female; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008297:Male; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods*; D014463:Ultrasonography
D001798:Blood Proteins; D005782:Gels