Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary malignant bone tumor in children and adolescents. To identify new biomarkers
for early diagnosis of OS and novel therapeutic candidates, we carried out a plasma membrane proteomic study based on two-dimensional
electrophoresis (2DE). The OS cell line MG-63 and the human osteoblastic cell line hFOB1.19 were adopted as the comparison
model. We extracted plasma membrane by aqueous two-phase partition extraction. The proteins were separated through 2DE. We
analyzed the differentially expressed proteins by Imagemaster software and then identified them by liquid chromatography–tandem
mass spectrometry, and the location and function of differential proteins were searched through the Gene Ontology database.
In total, 220 protein spots were separated by 2DE. Seven proteins with more than 2.0-folds of difference were successfully
identified from 13 gel spots, with 6 up-regulated and 1 down-regulated. Gene Ontology analysis of the differentially expressed
proteins indicated that these proteins were involved in seven kinds of functions including binding, structural, cell motility,
receptor activity, electron carrier activity, NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) activity, and transcription repressor activity.
The up-regulation of NDRG1 was verified in osteosarcoma through Western blotting and by immunohistochemistry in paraffin-embedded
tissues. The plasma membrane proteins identified in this study may provide new insights into osteosarcoma cancer biology and
potential diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers.
Keywords Osteosarcoma – Plasma membrane – Proteomics – NDRG1 – 2DE
Yingqi Hua, Xiaofang Jia, Mengxiong Sun, and Longpo Zheng contributed equally to this work.