title: Buffalo cervico-vaginal fluid proteomics with special reference to estrous cycle: heat shock protein (HSP)-70 appears to be an estrus indicator.
abstract: Cervico-vaginal fluid (CVF) plays significant roles in coitus, sperm transport, and implantation. It is believed to be a good noninvasive biomarker for various diagnostic purposes. In this study, a comprehensive proteomic analysis of buffalo CVF was performed during the estrous cycle in order to document the protein expressions, utilizing SDS-PAGE, mass spectrometry, and immunoblot. The main objective was to screen the CVF of buffalo for one or more estrus-specific proteins. A total of 416 proteins were identified in the CVF of both estrus and diestrus phases. Out of these proteins, 68 estrus-specific proteins have been extensively reviewed in the protein database. The major physiological functions of estrus CVF proteins appeared to be stress response, immune response, and metabolic. Eventually, the expression level of heat shock protein-70 in the CVF during the estrus phase, as revealed in SDS-PAGE analysis, was higher than during diestrus. The identity of the protein was confirmed by immunoblot analysis as heat shock protein-70. The findings provide a potential lead for the evaluation of these proteins for estrus detection in buffalo because CVF biomarker detection is a noninvasive technique. The mass spectrometric data of identified proteins have been deposited at the ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD000620.
authors.affiliation: Center for Pheromone Technology, Department of Animal Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India.
authors.forename: Subramanian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muthukumar
authors.forename: Ramalingam
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rajkumar
authors.forename: Kandasamy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Karthikeyan
authors.forename: Chen-Chung
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Dheer
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Mohammad Abdulkader
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Akbarsha
authors.forename: Govindaraju
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Archunan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D001826:Body Fluids / Q000737:chemistry*; D002020:Buffaloes / Q000502:physiology*; D019295:Computational Biology; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel / Q000662:veterinary; D030762:Estrous Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D004972:Estrus Detection / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000502:physiology*; D015151:Immunoblotting / Q000662:veterinary; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000662:veterinary
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins
keywords: buffalo; cervico-vaginal fluid; cervix; estrous cycle; heat shock protein-70; proteome analysis