A comprehensive proteome map of bovine cerebrospinal fluid

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is considered as the most promising body fluid target for the discovery of biomarkers for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle. For the recognition of disease-associated changes in bovine CSF protein patterns, a detailed knowledge of this proteome is a prerequisite. The absence of a high-resolution CSF proteome map prompted us to determine all bovine CSF protein spots that can be visualised on 2-D protein gels. Using state-of-the-art 2-DE technology for proteome mapping of bovine ante mortem CSF combined with sensitive fluorescent protein staining and MALDI-TOF/TOF MS for protein identification, a highly detailed 2-DE map of the bovine CSF proteome was established. Besides the proteins mapped by earlier studies, this map contains 66 different proteins, including 58 which were not annotated in bovine 2-DE CSF maps before.