Gender differences in rat plasma proteome in response to high-fat diet

Knowledge of gender differences is important because nutritional recommendations on the basis of data collected using predominantly male subjects may not be valid for women. In the present study, we performed proteomic analysis in plasma of rats fed a high-fat diet (HFD) using 2-DE combined with MALDI-TOF-MS for analysis of differential regulation patterns between male and female plasma proteins. Male rats gained more body weight with increased values of biochemical parameters than female rats. Image analysis and further statistical analysis allowed detection and identification of 31 proteins that were significantly modulated in a gender-dependent manner in response to HFD. Those differential expressed proteins were classified into three groups based on their regulation patterns in response to diet and gender. Consequently, we found 13 proteins showing gender-different regulation in both normal diet (ND) and HFD, where 9 proteins showed identical regulation patterns (Group I) and 4 proteins exhibited opposite regulation mode (Group II) between the genders. Eighteen proteins showed no gender-difference but HFD-responsive regulation (Group III). Of these, Apo A-IV, CRP precursor, Hp precursor, and FGG showed a clear gender difference in both ND and HFD, with the same regulation patterns. Present proteomic research into gender-dimorphic protein modulation in plasma would aid in improvement of gender awareness in the health care system and in implementation of evidence-based gender-specific clinical recommendations.