Proteomic analysis of 5-fluorouracil induced apoptosis in MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cells

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanism of 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) induced apoptosis in MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cells. METHODS: The effect of different concentrations of 5-Fu on MCF-7 cells was detected by MTT assay. Transmission electron microscope was used to observe morphological change of MCF-7 cells. Cell cycle distribution and apoptosis were determined by flow cytometry. The proteomic approach of combined 2-DE and MALDI TOF/TOF MS was used to identify differential protein expression of MCF-7 induced by 5-Fu. RESULTS: At 48 h after 5-Fu(98.2 μmol · L^-1) treatment, 14 large difference protein spots were screened to analysis by MALDI TOF/TOF MS. Among them 12 proteins were appraised, which involved in energy metabolism, cytoskeleton, tumor invasion and metastasis, signal transduction. CONCLUSION: We effectively found 12 changed proteins in the process of 5-Fu induced apoptosis in MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cells by proteomic techniques. In these proteins, signal transduction protein GNB2L1 and energy metabolism protein ECHS1 may play an important role in tumor development and may be novel diagnostic marker for breast carcinoma.