[Shotgun proteomic analysis of intervertebral disc tissues from fetal and adult subjects]

To acquire information on the IVD (intervertebral disc) proteome and analyze the differences of identified proteins during IVD development and maturation by a shotgun proteomics approach so as to identify the global protein expression patterns of IVD tissues from fetus and adults.

A 24-week fetus, a 25- and a 30-year-old adult IVD samples were collected and SDS-PAGE, RP-HPLC MS/MS shotgun analyses were performed. Bioinformational analysis with International Protein Index (IPI) database and functional classification with Gene Ontology Annotation (GOA) database were used to evaluate the results.

A total of 524 proteins were identified in fetal IVD sample while 181 and 172 proteins were observed in 25 and 30-year-old samples respectively. Forty-eight proteins existed in three samples while 84 proteins in the 25-years-old and 30-years-old samples but not in fetus. Only 174 high-quality proteins existed in fetal sample while 20 high-quality proteins in 25-year-old and 30-year-old samples. The physico-chemical characteristics of identified proteins displayed similar trends in three samples.

This study represents the first presentation of a global proteomic map of fetal and adult IVD samples using shotgun technology. Substantial differences exist in number and variety of proteins between development and mature IVD. This contributes to our overall knowledge in of biochemical components, metabolic regulation and biological mechanics in IVD.