Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 27, 2025
TMT Sample Preparation for Proteomics Facility Submission and Subsequent Data Analysis
Published on: June 8, 2020
TMT-Based Quantitative Proteomic and Physiological Analyses on Serums of Chinese Patients with Active Vitiligo
Zile Chen1, Yiting Li1, Shu Nie1
1Department of Dermatology, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
Purpose:
Vitiligo is an acquired depigmented skin disorder. Though genetic background, autoimmune dysregulation, and oxidative stress were reported involved in the development of vitiligo, the exact pathogenesis remains largely unknown. This study aimed to investigate potential functional proteins, pathways, and serum biomarkers involved in active vitiligo.
Patients And Methods:
Tandem Mass Tags (TMT) method was used to determine differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in serum samples between 11 active vitiligo patients and 7 healthy controls of Chinese Han population.
Results:
A total of 31 DEPs were identified (P < 0.05, fold change >1.2), with 21 proteins upregulated and 10 proteins downregulated in the vitiligo group. DEPs were enriched in GO terms such as "extracellular exosome" and "immunoglobulin receptor binding", as well as KEGG pathways including "cysteine and methionine metabolism" and other immune-related pathways. Furthermore, ALDH1A1 and EEF1G achieved areas under receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.9221 and 0.8571, respectively. The expression levels of these 2 proteins were validated in another active vitiligo patient group.
Conclusion:
Our research provided novel insight into serum proteomic profile for vitiligo patients, detecting ALDH1A1 and EEF1G as potential biomarkers for active vitiligo and therapeutic intervention. Our work also detected several DEPs and associated pathways in the serum of active vitiligo patients, reinforcing the roles of retinoic acid and exosome processes in vitiligo pathogenesis.
