Proteome analysis technology has been used extensively in conducting discovery research of biology and has become one of the most essential technologies in functional genomics. The proteomes of the human hepatoma cell line BEL-7404 and the normal human liver cell line L-02 have been separated by high resolution two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) with immobilized pH gradient isoelectric focusing (IPG-IEF) in the first dimension and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) in the second dimension (IPG-DALT). The resulting images have been analyzed using 2-D analysis software. Quantitative analysis reveals that 7 protein spots are detected only in hepatoma BEL-7404 cells, 14 only in L-02 cells, and 78 protein spots show significant fluctuation in quantity in both cell lines (P<0.01). These protein spots have been displayed on a proteome differential expression map. Analysis for the reproducibility of 2-DE indicates that the positional variability in the IEF dimension is
As one of the most important analytical methods in proteome research, mass spectrometry was utilized to identify proteins separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis in the human hepatoma cell line BEL-7404. The protein spots were excised from the gel, followed by in-gel digestion, and the peptide mappings were analyzed by liquid chromatography electrospray ion trap mass spectrometer. Nine proteins were identified via database searching, according to the molecular weights and amino acid sequences of peptides, among which two proteins have not been identified in the other liver-cell database. The sequence coverage was 21% -72%. Furthermore, the relationship between the expressed proteins and the liver carcinoma was discussed.