Protein chip-based microarray profiling of oxidized low density lipoprotein-treated cells

Commercially available high-content Ab380 and extensively validated DLM26 homemade protein microarrays were used to profile the effects of the pro-atherogenic molecule, oxidized low density lipoprotein (OxLDL), on human aortic smooth muscle cells. Protein microarrays detected 298 proteins in cell lysates and 54 of these were differentially regulated. Microarray data were validated by immunoblotting for a selected set of up- and down-regulated proteins. The protein microarray data sets were compared with our recent cDNA microarray-based gene expression results in order to characterize the global effect of OxLDL on smooth muscle cell functions. A group of cell-cell interaction molecules was classified as up-regulated by OxLDL, whereas nucleic acid/protein biosynthesis, structural and humoral response proteins/genes were under-expressed in cells treated by OxLDL. These findings reveal the major pattern of OxLDL-induced effects on the human aortic smooth muscle cells functions and also demonstrate that protein chip-based microarrays could be a useful proteomic tool to profile disease-related states of muscle cells.