Proteomic analysis of human hippocampus shows differential protein expression in the different hippocampal subfields

In the current investigation, we aimed to characterize the differential protein expression in each of the hippocampal subregions in healthy control samples (n = 20). We used laser-assisted microdissection and difference in-gel electrophoresis to enrich for these tissues and to compare protein profiles. Image analysis was carried out using Progenesis SameSpots. Samples with a false discovery rate smaller than 5%, a p-value of < 0.01, and an expression of at least ± 1.2 were considered significant. Proteins were identified using LC-ESI-MS/MS. The raw mass spectral data were analyzed using DataAnalysis software. Data were searched against the Swissprot database using MASCOT. Samples were grouped according to the different subregions and we found 182 spots to be differentially expressed between the different hippocampal subregions. These have been made available as part of the UCD-2DPAGE database at http://proteomics-portal.ucd.ie:8082. The associated MS data have been submitted to PRIDE (Accession numbers 21593-21745). This baseline data will be helpful in helping us to understand the central role of the hippocampus in health and the evidence that particular hippocampal subregions are differentially affected in disease.