Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 4, 2026
Colorectal Cancer Cell Surface Protein Profiling Using an Antibody Microarray and Fluorescence Multiplexing
Published on: September 25, 2011
Identification of COL3A1 as a candidate protein involved in the crosstalk between obesity and diarrhea using
Yan Wang1, Xiangyao Wang2, Xiaotong Niu3
1Nankai University School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China; Department of Gastroenterology, The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China.
Background:
Increasing epidemiologic studies have shown a positive correlation between obesity and chronic diarrhea. Nevertheless, the precise etiology remains uncertain.
Methods:
We performed a comprehensive proteomics analysis utilizing the data-independent acquisition (DIA) technique on jejunal tissues from patients with obesity and chronic diarrhea (OD, n = 33), obese patients (OB, n = 10), and healthy controls (n = 8). Differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in OD vs. control and OD vs. OB comparisons were subjected to pathway enrichment and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis. Machine learning algorithms were adopted on overlapping DEPs in both comparisons. The candidate protein was further validated using Western blot, immunohistochemistry (IHC), and in vitro experiments.
Results:
We identified 189 and 228 DEPs in OD vs. control and OD vs. OB comparisons, respectively. DEPs in both comparisons were co-enriched in extracellular matrix (ECM) organization. Downregulated DEPs were associated with tight junction and ECM-receptor interaction in OD vs. control and OD vs. OB comparisons, respectively. Machine learning algorithms selected 3 proteins from 14 overlapping DEPs in both comparisons, among which collagen alpha-1(III) chain (COL3A1) was identified as a core protein in PPI networks. Western blot and IHC verified the expression of COL3A1. Moreover, the tight junction-related proteins decreased after the knockdown of COL3A1 in Caco2 intestinal cells upon PA challenge, consistent with the proteomics results.
Conclusions:
We generated in-depth profiling of a proteomic dataset from samples of OD patients and provided unique insights into disease pathogenesis. COL3A1 was involved in the crosstalk between obesity and intestinal homeostasis via the ECM-receptor interaction pathway.
