Comparative proteomic profiling in squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix

Purpose: Proteomic profiling of human uterine cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) tissues was performed to find new biomarkers for the early diagnosis and molecular target therapies. Experimental design: Proteins extracted from five of normal tissues and five of the SCC tissues were subjected to 2-DE followed by LC-MS/MS. Results: Twenty-seven of the protein spots were increased, and five of them were identified by LC-MS/MS to be cytokeratin-19, HSP70, HSP27, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and transgellin-2. The upregulation of HSP70, HSP27, and transgelin-2 was examined by Western blot of cultured SCC cell lines, ten additional normal tissues, ten additional SCC tissues, and three paired samples of the SCC tissue and its corresponding noncancerous tissue. The positive rate of HSP70 expression was higher in the SCC tissues than in normal tissues. Transgelin-2 was observed only in the SCC tissues, and also those in the early stage. Conclusions and clinical relevance: The present study successfully identified three upregulated proteins in the uterine cervical SCC by proteomic analyses, and suggested that these proteins could be the candidates for new biomarkers for early diagnosis of SCC and molecular target therapies.