title: [Screening and identification of apolipoprotein A-I as a potential marker for hepatoblastoma in children].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To screen and identify serum biomarkers for childhood hepatoblastoma (HB).
  
  
  METHODS
  The serum samples from 30 children with hepatoblastoma (HB), 20 children with systemic inflammatory response syndrome, and 20 normal children were treated with magnetic bead-based weak cation exchange chromatography. The platform of surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) was used to eliminate the interference of inflammatory factors and to screen out the differentially expressed proteins in serum between tumor group and normal group. After the purification and separation of target proteins were performed using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry was used to determine their amino acid sequences. The SwissProt database was searched for matched proteins. Finally, real-time PCR and ELISA were used to verify and measure the expression of target proteins.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After SELDI-TOF-MS was used for screening and elimination of the interference of inflammatory factors, a differentially expression protein with a mass-to-charge ratio of 9 348 Da was found in serum between HB group and normal group, and the HB group had significantly lower expression of this protein than the normal group (p<0.05). This protein was identified as apolipoprotein A-1 (Apo A-I). Real-time PCR and ELISA verified the low mRNA and protein expression of Apo A-I in serum in the HB group and high expression in serum in the normal group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Apo A-I can be used as a non-inflammatory protein marker for HB and has a certain value in the early diagnosis of HB.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China. wjiaxiang@zzu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Li-Hua
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jun-Jie
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ying-Zhong
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Jia-Xiang
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D016632:Apolipoprotein A-I / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D018197:Hepatoblastoma / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
chemical_list: C505693:APOA1 protein, human; D016632:Apolipoprotein A-I; D015415:Biomarkers