Objective: To establish a two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE) map of human low differentiation nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cell line CNE-2 proteome.
Methods: Immobilized pH gradient 2-DE was applied to separate the total proteins of CNE-2 cells, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) and database searching were used to indentify proteins.
Results: A good 2-DE pattern with high resolution and reproducibility was obtained. Seventy-eight protein spots were incised from sliver staining gel and digested in gel by trypisin. Of them 77 maps of peptide mass fingerprints (PMF) were obtained and 48 proteins were identified.
Conclusion: A reference 2-DE map of CNE-2 proteome has been established and the data coupled with similar proteome analysis of other NPC cell lines will expand the human nasopharyngeal carcinoma proteome database.