Proteome profiling of spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia in rats with trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid-induced colitis

AIM: To investigate proteomic changes in spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) of rats with trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis. METHODS: The colonic myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) level were determined. A two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE)- based proteomic technique was used to profile the global protein expression changes in the DRG and spinal cord of the rats with acute colitis induced by intracolonic injection of TNBS. RESULTS: TNBS group showed significantly elevated colonic MPO activity and increased TNF-α level. The proteins derived from lumbosacral enlargement of the spinal cord and DRG were resolved by 2-DE; and 26 and 19 proteins that displayed significantly different expression levels in the DRG and spinal cord were identified respectively. Altered proteins were found to be involved in a number of biological functions, such as inflammation/immunity, cell signaling, redox regulation, sulfate transport and cellular metabolism. The overexpression of the protein similar to potassium channel tetramerisation domain containing protein 12 (Kctd 12) and low expression of proteasome subunit α type-1 (psma) were validated by Western blotting analysis. CONCLUSION: TNBS-induced colitis has a profound impact on protein profiling in the nervous system. This result helps understand the neurological pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease.