High performance mass spectrometry based proteomics reveals enzyme and signaling pathway regulation in neutrophils during the early stage of surgical trauma

In clinical conditions trauma is associated with high mortality and morbidity. Neutrophils play a key role in the development of multiple organ failure after trauma. To have a detailed understanding of the neutrophil activation at primary stages after trauma, neutrophils were isolated from control and surgical trauma rats in this study. Extracted proteins were analyzed using nano liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 2924 rat neutrophil proteins were identified in our analysis, of which 393 were found differentially regulated between control and trauma groups. By using functional pathways analysis of the 190 proteins up-regulated in surgical trauma we found proteins related to transcription initiation and protein biosynthesis. On the other hand, among the 203 proteins down-regulated in surgical trauma we found enrichment for proteins of the immune response, proteasome degradation and actin cytoskeleton. Overall, enzyme prediction analysis revealed that regulated enzymes are directly involved in neutrophil apoptosis, directional migration and chemotaxis. Our observations were then confirmed by in silico protein-protein interaction analysis. Collectively, our results reveal that neutrophils drastically regulate their biochemical pathways after the early stages of surgical trauma, showing lower activity. This implies higher susceptibility of the trauma patients to infection and bystander tissues damage. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved