Proteomic analysis of the rat vestibular nucleus complex following unilateral labyrinthectomy

The appearance of some candidate proteins may be essential for compensation as spatio-temporal expression patterns and this proteomic analysis may be a useful tool to understand the molecular basis of vestibular compensation.

The purpose of this study was to identify the proteins expressed in vestibular nucleus complexes (VNCs) using proteomics following unilateral labyrinthectomy.

Proteomic analysis was performed in VNCs of rats at 6 h, 72 h, and 7 days following unilateral labyrinthectomy in comparison to normal VNC. Twenty-seven interesting spots in both normal and study groups were selected for MALDI-TOF MS. Expression of some selected genes was confirmed by RT-PCR.

In all, 22 of 27 spots were matched after MALDI-TOF MS. Among these, 14 proteins were highly expressed in normal VNCs and 8 were newly expressed following labyrinthectomy. Among these 14 normal proteins, 9 were consistently expressed in both normal and labyrinthectomized VCNs, while 5 were down-regulated following labyrinthectomy. Eight were newly expressed following labyrinthectomy. Expression patterns of nine genes at RT-PCR were compatible with protein expression patterns.