A two-dimensional liquid-phase separation method coupled with mass spectrometry for proteomic studies of breast cancer and biomarker identification

A two-dimensional liquid-phase separation scheme coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) is presented for proteomic analysis of cell lysates from normal and malignant breast epithelial cell lines. Liquid-phase separations consist of isoelectric focusing as the first dimension and nonporous silica reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (NPS-RP-HPLC) as the second dimension. Protein quantitation and mass measurement are performed using electrospray ionization-time of flight MS (ESI-TOF MS). Proteins are identified by peptide mass fingerprinting using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight MS (MALDI-TOF MS) and MALDI-quadrupole time of flight (QTOF)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Two pH regions with 50-60 unique proteins in each pH range were chosen for analysis. Mass maps were created that allowed visualization of protein quantitation differences between normal and malignant breast epithelial cells. Of the approximately 110 unique proteins observed from mass mapping experiments over the limited pH range, 40 (36%) were positively identified by peptide mass fingerprinting and assigned to bands in the mass maps. Of these 40 proteins, 22 were more highly expressed in one or more of the malignant cell lines. These proteins represent potential breast cancer biomarkers that could aid in diagnosis, therapy, or drug development.