Abstract
Purpose: :
To compare the serum protein profiles in patients with Graves’ Disease (GD) and/or Graves’ Ophthalmopathy (GO) using high-throughput protein microarray.
Methods: :
Five (2 male) Dysthyroid Graves’ Ophthalmopathy (GD+GO+) and five (3 male) Euthyroid Graves’ ophthalmopathy (GD-GO+) patients were recruited with mean+/-SD age of 49+/-9 years before any immunosuppressive treatment. Two (1 male) age-matched GD patients with no eye disease (GD+GO-) and two (1 male) age-matched normal subjects (GD-GO-) were recruited as control. All patients were clinically and biochemically euthyroid at the time of blood test. Serum immune response biomarker profiling was measured using the ProtoArray® Human Protein Microarray, V4.0 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA), testing for approximately 8,000 proteins. All arrays were individually scanned and the fluorescence intensities were quantified using GenePix Pro 6.0 (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA, USA). The data were then analyzed using ProtoArray® Prospector software (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA).
Results: :
Fourteen proteins showed up-regulated signals and thirty-three proteins showed down-regulated signals on arrays when comparing GD+GO+ with GD+GO- samples. Eight proteins showed up-regulated signals and twenty-nine down-regulated signals on arrays between GD-GO+ and GD+GO- samples. Three protein expressions were elevated in both GD+GO+ and GD-GO+ samples, among which two were responsible for protein folding and one for signal transduction. Ten proteins were down-regulated in both GD+GO+ and GD-GO+ samples which were involved in signal transduction, protein folding and transcription regulation.
Keywords: autoimmune disease • orbit • proteomics