THE HUMAN BRAIN PROTEOME: INITIAL
RESULTS FROM THE HUMAN PROTEIN INDEX™ PROJECT
Leigh Anderson, Large Scale Biology
Corporation
As part of an effort to characterize
the baseline proteomes of the major human tissues (the Human Protein Index™
project) we have examined the protein composition of more than 30 brain regions
by quantitative 2-D electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. As expected,
differences between brain regions are more limited in scope than the differences
among major organs (e.g., liver, brain, kidney). Nevertheless, many
proteins show major quantitative changes from region to region, resulting in
complex expression profiles. Hundreds of brain proteins have been
identified by mass spectrometry, allowing functional interpretation of some
expression variations. The results of this study provide a foundation for
the detailed examination of disease-associated protein changes in brain.