Background & objective: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is characterized by high incidence and high mortality. This study was designed to identify the proteins dysregulated in ECSS by.
Methods: Microdissection of routinely unstained frozen sections was used to procure cancer cells from seven esophageal squamous cell carcinomas, and esophageal epithelial cells from normal tissues adjacent to the tumors. By two-dimensional electrophoresis, protein profiles of normal and cancerous tissues were obtained. Selected proteins with altered expression in tumors were identified through MALDI-TOF-MS.
Results: Compared the protein profiles of tumors with those of normal epithelia, 11 proteins were found as dysregulated in tumors. Among them, HSP27 was observed up-expressed and three isoforms of ANNEXIN I were seen down-expressed in cancerous tissues.
Conclusion: Two-dimensional electrophoresis coupled with mass spectrometry can contribute to rapidly screen dysregulated proteins in human maligancies. Altered expressions of HSP27 and ANNEXIN I were the frequent events in Chinese esophageal squamous cell carcinomas.