Detection of Serum Protein Biomarkers for the Diagnosis and Staging of Hepatoblastoma

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Wei Zhao¹  Juan Li²  Junjie Zhang¹  Pengfei Gao¹  Hang Pei¹  Lei Wang¹  Fei Guo¹  Jiekai Yu³  Shu Zheng³  Jiaxiang Wang¹ 

[1] Department of Pediatric Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Jianshe Road, Zhengzhou 450000, China; E-Mails:;Department of Respiratory Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Jianshe Road, Zhengzhou 450000, China; E-Mail:;Institute of Cancer, the Second Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Jiefang Road, Hangzhou 310000, China; E-Mails:

关键词: hepatoblastom;    SELDI-TOF-MS;    MALDI-TOF-MS;    2D-LC-LTQ-MS;    apolipoprotein A–I;    protein biomarker;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms160612669

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The present study aimed to identify serum biomarkers for the detection of hepatoblastoma (HB). Serum samples were collected from 71 HB patients (stage I, n = 19; stage II, n = 19, stage III, n = 19; and stage IV, n = 14) and 23 age- and sex-matched healthy children. Differential expression of serum protein markers were screened using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS), and the target proteins were isolated and purified using HPLC and identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS), SEQUEST, and bioinformatics analysis. Differential protein expression was confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent analysis (ELISA). SELDI-TOF-MS screening identified a differentially expressed protein with an m/z of 9348 Da, which was subsequently identified as Apo A–I; its expression was significantly lower in the HB group as compared to the normal control group (1546.67 ± 757.81 vs. 3359.21 ± 999.36, respectively; p < 0.01). Although the expression level decreased with increasing disease stage, pair-wise comparison revealed significant differences in Apo A–I expression between the normal group and the HB subgroups (p < 0.01). ELISA verified the reduced expression of Apo A–I in the HB group. Taken together, these results suggest that Apo A–I may represent a serum protein biomarker of HB. Further studies will assess the value of using Apo A–I expression for HB diagnosis and staging.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.