Journal of Clinical Toxicology
Open Access

Abstract

Serum Proteomic Analysis for the Identification of Biomarkers by Two- Dimensional Differential Gel Electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) after Exposure to the Food-Processed Contaminant Furan

Santokh Gill, Meghan Kavanagh, Christine Poirier, Dorcas Weber and Terry Koerner

Background: Furan is a compound known to be present in cooked or thermally-processed foods by formation through traditional heat treatment processes and also known to be a potent hepatotoxin. To identify potential biomarkers of furan exposure, two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) was performed on individual serum samples to identify proteomic profiles that were differentially expressed in rats exposed to furan at 0, 0.03, 0.5 and 8.0 mg/kg bw/day. Results: There were no differences in protein expression between control and the 0.03 and 0.5 mg/kg bw/day dose groups (one-way ANOVA P<0.05, avg ratio +1.5). At the 8.0 mg/kg bw/day of furan exposure, there were 22 protein spots that showed a difference in expression when compared to the control animals (one-way ANOVA P<0.05, avg ratio +1.5). After manual spot picking, four proteins were identified by standard in-gel tryptic digestion followed by mass spectrometry and bioinformatics. Conclusions: Of these four proteins apolipoprotein C-III (isoform CRA_b) and fetuin-B (precursor) were upregulated, whereas α-1-macroglobulin and pre-proapolipoprotein A-1 were down-regulated. These biomarkers could be of diagnostic relevance to identify furan exposure.