PROTEIN-COMPOSITION OF THE HUMAN HEART - THE CONSTRUCTION OF A MYOCARDIAL 2-DIMENSIONAL ELECTROPHORESIS DATABASE

Molecular changes occurring in myocardial diseases are not well unders tood. Proteins, as regulatory molecules, should play an important role in the etiology of these diseases. The method of two-dimensional elec trophoresis (2-DE) allows the analysis of some thousand proteins with one experiment. An important prerequisite for this kind of investigati on is the possibility of identifying the proteins separated by 2-DE. W e resolved 3239 proteins of the human myocardium and tried to identify 33 proteins by amino acid analysis and microsequencing. Twenty protei ns were identified by search for the protein-chemical data obtained in the Martinsried Institute Protein Sequence Database. Comparisons of 2 -DE patterns of different size, which were obtained in different labor atories, were performed with the result that proteins identified on a 2-DE map of one laboratory can be assigned to spots of 2-DE maps produ ced by another laboratory. Our results show the usefulness of a myocar dial 2-DE database; they can be used in different laboratories and mak e it possible to generate a collection of important human myocardial p roteins in a 2-DE database for comparative studies worldwide.