Proteomic analysis of rat liver proteins differentially induced by trichloroethylene

Abstract

Trichloroethylene (TCE), a volatile and lipophilic solvent widely used in industrial degreasing applications, is believed to be toxic in humans. To identify possible protein biomarkers of early TCE-induced hepatotoxicity, we treated rats with a single dose of TCE equivalent to 10% of LD50 and analyzed their liver proteomes 72 h after dosing. We identified eight liver proteins that exhibited a TCE-induced change in expression level of at least 2-fold; three of these proteins were upregulated and the rest were downregulated. Because these proteins changed significantly in abundance in the absence of notable hepatotoxicity in vivo, they may be useful as one of the candidates of early predictive biomarkers of TCE exposure in rats.