Research

The proteome of human brain microdialysate

Martin H Maurer¹ , Christian Berger² , Margit Wolf² , Carsten D Fütterer³ , Robert E Feldmann Jr¹ , Stefan Schwab² and Wolfgang Kuschinsky¹

¹  Dept. of Physiology and Pathophysiology, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 326, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

²  Dept. of Neurology, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 400, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

³  Dept. of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Faculty of Clinical Medicine Mannheim, Theodor-Kutzer-Ufer, 68167 Mannheim, Germany

author email corresponding author email

Proteome Science 2003, 1:7doi:10.1186/1477-5956-1-7

Published:	14 December 2003

Abstract

Background

Cerebral microdialysis has been established as a monitoring tool in neurocritically ill patients suffering from severe stroke. The technique allows to sample small molecules in the brain tissue for subsequent biochemical analysis. In this study, we investigated the proteomic profile of human cerebral microdialysate and if the identified proteins might be useful predictors for disease characteristics in stroke for tissue at risk in the contralateral hemisphere. We analysed cerebral protein expression in microdialysate from three stroke patients sampled from the hemisphere contralateral to the lesion. Using a proteomic approach based on two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and subsequent mass spectrometry, we created a protein map for the global protein expression pattern of human microdialyste.

Results

We found an average of 158 ± 24 (N = 18) protein spots in the human cerebral microdialysate and could identify 95 spots, representing 27 individual proteins. Most of these have been detected in human cerebrospinal fluid before, but 10 additional proteins mainly of cerebral intracellular origin were identified exclusively in the microdialysate.

Conclusions

The 10 proteins found exclusively in human cerebral microdialysate, but not in cerebrospinal fluid, indicate the possibility to monitor the progression of the disease towards deterioration. The correlation of protein composition in the human cerebral microdialysate with the patients' clinical condition and results of cerebral imaging may be a useful approach to future applications for neurological stroke diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment.