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Infect. Immun. doi:10.1128/IAI.01048-06
Copyright (c) 2006, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Differential liver protein expression during schistosomiasis

School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: anne.laflamme{at}vuw.ac.nz.

	Abstract

The arrival of eggs in the liver during Schistosoma mansoni infection initiates a protective granulomatous response; however, as the infection progresses this response results in chronic liver fibrosis. To better understand the impact of schistosomiasis on liver function, we used a proteomic approach to identify proteins whose expression was significantly altered in schistosome-infected mice 8 weeks post infection. Identification of differentially expressed proteins by mass fingerprinting revealed that schistosome infection markedly reduced the abundance of proteins associated with several normal liver functions (i.e. citric acid cycle, fatty acid cycle, and urea cycle) while proteins associated with stress responses, acute phase reactants, and structural components were all significantly more abundant. The expression pattern of several immune related proteins suggests the association of different protein forms with schistosome infection (i.e. peroxiredoxin 1, arginase 1, and galectin 1). These studies indicate that acute schistosomiasis has a significant impact on specific liver functions, and moreover, that the alterations in specific protein isoforms and upregulation of unique proteins may be valuable as new markers of disease.