Protein analysis by mass spectrometry and sequence database searching: A proteomic approach to identify human lymphoblastoid cell line proteins

Lymphoblastoid cell lines correspond to in vitro EBV-immortalized lymphocyte B-cells. These cells display a suitable model for experiments dealing with changes in protein expression occurring upon B-cell differentiation, after drug treatment, or after inhibition of some transcription factors. For all these reasons we have undertaken an effort aimed at developing a hematopoietic cell line protein two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) database, containing B-lymphoblastoid 2-DE maps. In this work, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) peptide mass fingerprinting analysis was adopted for protein identification. The peptide mass fingerprinting identification and the sequence coverage obtained on colloidal Coomassie blue (CBB) stained gel was close to that obtained using zinc-imidazole staining. Everything considered, CBB being more confortable for subsequent spot manipulations, CBB staining was chosen for identification of a larger number of polypeptides. The results suggest that reticulation of the gel can interfere preventing the uptake of the enzyme during the in-gel digestion step. Consequently, low molecular mass proteins appear more difficult to identify by mass fingerprinting. Finally, the information provided in this study allows the construction of a new annoted reference map of human lymphoblastoid cell proteins. Among the identified proteins 60% were not yet positioned on 2-DE maps in three of the most important well-documented databases. The annoted map will be accessible via Internet on the LBPP server at URL:http://www-smbh.univ-paris13.fr/lbtp/index.htm.