Quantitative Proteome Analysis of Brain Subregions and Spinal Cord from Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis Mice by TMT-Based Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS)

its cause is unknown. To understand the pathogenesis of MS, researchers often use the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mouse model. Here, our aim was to build a proteome map of the biological changes that occur during MS at the major onset sites-the brain and the spinal cord. We performed quantitative proteome profiling in five specific brain regions and the spinal cord of EAE and healthy mice with high-resolution mass spectrometry based on tandem mass tags. On average, we quantified 7,400 proteins per region, with the most differentially expressed proteins in the spinal cord (1,691), hippocampus (104), frontal cortex (83), cerebellum (63), brainstem (50), and caudate nucleus (41). Moreover, we identified region-specific and commonly expressed proteins in each region and performed bioinformatics analysis. Pathway analysis revealed that protein clusters resemble their functions in disease pathogenesis (i.e., by inducing inflammatory responses, immune activation, and cell-cell adhesion). In conclusion, our study provides an understanding of the pathogenesis of MS in the EAE animal model. We expect that our comprehensive proteome map of the brain and spinal cord can be used to identify biomarkers for the pathogenesis of MS. This article is protected by copyright.