title: Proteomic profiling change during the early development of silicosis disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Silicosis is one of several severe occupational diseases for which effective diagnostic tools during early development are currently unavailable. In this study we focused on proteomic profiling during the early stages of silicosis to investigate the pathophysiology and identify the proteins involved.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF-MS were used to assess the proteomic differences between healthy individuals (HI), dust-exposed workers without silicosis (DEW) and silicosis patients (SP). Proteins abundances that differed by a factor of two-fold or greater were subjected to more detailed analysis, and enzyme linked to immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was employed to correlate with protein expression data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with HI, 42 proteins were more abundant and 8 were less abundant in DEW, and these were also differentially accumulated in SP. Closer inspection revealed that serine protease granzyme A, alpha-1-B-glycoprotein (A1BG) and the T4 surface glycoprotein precursor (TSGP) were among the up-regulated proteins in DEW and SP. Significant changes in serine proteases, glycoproteins and proto-oncogenes may be associated with the response to cytotoxicity and infectious pathogens by activation of T cells, positive regulation of extracellular matrix structural constituents and immune response, and fibroblast proliferation. Up-regulation of cytokines included TNFs, interferon beta precursor, interleukin 6, atypical chemokine receptor 2, TNFR13BV, and mutant IL-17F may be involved in the increased and persistent immune response and fibrosis that occurred during silicosis development.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Granzymes, glycoproteins, cytokines and immune factors were dramatically involved in the immune response, metabolism, signal regulation and fibrosis during the early development of silicosis. Proteomic profiling has expanded our understanding of the pathogenesis of silicosis, and identified a number of targets that may be potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of this debilitating disease.
authors.affiliation: 1 The 8th People's Hospital of Wuxi, Wuxi 210024, China ; 2 Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Rongming
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.affiliation: 1 The 8th People's Hospital of Wuxi, Wuxi 210024, China ; 2 Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Bangmei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: 1 The 8th People's Hospital of Wuxi, Wuxi 210024, China ; 2 Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Yingyi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: 1 The 8th People's Hospital of Wuxi, Wuxi 210024, China ; 2 Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: 1 The 8th People's Hospital of Wuxi, Wuxi 210024, China ; 2 Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: 1 The 8th People's Hospital of Wuxi, Wuxi 210024, China ; 2 Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Baoli
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhu
keywords: Cytokines; fibrosis; immune response; proteomic profiling; silicosis