TOXICANT-INDUCED ALTERATIONS IN 2-DIMENSIONAL ELECTROPHORETIC PATTERNS OF HEPATIC AND RENAL STRESS PROTEINS

Recent studies in this laboratory and by others suggest that two-dimen sional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of proteins (2-DE) possesses significant utility in the detection of chemical toxicity and in prov iding information regarding toxic mechanism, After having identified a set of specific heat-shock and glucose-regulated proteins whose expre ssion in rodent liver and kidney is highly conserved and constitutive, we compared the effect of in vivo exposure to perfluoro-n-octanoic ac id and perfluoro-n-decanoic acid on their expression. The following st ress proteins were identified, their x, y coordinate positions mapped, and abundance statistically analyzed and compared: hsp32, hsp60, hsc7 0, hsp70, hsp90, grp75, grp94, protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), and ER60. We report here that the stress response to perfluorocarboxylic a cids is tissue-, toxicant-, and stress protein class-specific and dose -related. Furthermore, because nearly all of the proteins studied were constitutively expressed at detectable levels in both liver and kidne y, the 2-DE stress protein pattern may be suitable to future toxicolog ic screening applications.