[Study on proteomic profiling changes of workers exposed to methylbenzene and healthy individuals]

Objective: This study focused on the proteomicchanges between workers exposed to methylbenzene (WMB) and healthy individuals (HI) . Methods: The serum of WMB and HI was collected and the unmarked label free mass spectrometry was utilized for protein identification and quantitative comparison. The differentlyexpressed proteins in WMB and the HI were screened, followed by the analysis of protein and biological functions by bioinformatics tools. Results: Thirty nine proteins were differently expressed between WMB and HI. Compared with HI, 24 proteins were up regulated and 15 proteins were down regulated over 2 fold change in WMB. Theseproteins were mainly involved in signal transduction, serine endopeptidase activity, inflammatory response, protein modification, stress reaction, coagulation reaction and so on. Conclusion: The differently expressed proteins provide a potential protein marker for the health assessment of WMB and early diagnosis of methylbenzene poisioning and expand our understanding of the molecular mechanism of methylbenzene intoxication.