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Title: Ischemia in tumors induces early and sustained phosphorylation changes in stress kinase pathways but does not affect global protein levels

Journal Article · · Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. MCP, 13(7):1690-1704

Advances in quantitative mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics have sparked efforts to characterize the proteomes of tumor samples to provide complementary and unique information inaccessible by genomics. Tumor samples are usually not accrued with proteomic characterization in mind, raising concerns regarding effects of undocumented sample ischemia on protein abundance and phosphosite stoichiometry. Here we report the effects of cold ischemia time on clinical ovarian cancer samples and patient-derived basal and luminal breast cancer xenografts. Tumor tissues were excised and collected prior to vascular ligation, subjected to accurately defined ischemia times up to 60 min, and analyzed by quantitative proteomics and phosphoproteomics using isobaric tags and high-performance, multidimensional LC-MS/MS. No significant changes were detected at the protein level in each tumor type after 60 minutes of ischemia, and the majority of the >25,000 phosphosites detected were also stable. However, large, reproducible increases and decreases in protein phosphorylation at specific sites were observed in up to 24% of the phosphoproteome starting as early as 5 minutes post-excision. Early and sustained activation of stress response, transcriptional regulation and cell death pathways were observed in common across tumor types. Tissue-specific changes in phosphosite stability were also observed suggesting idiosyncratic effects of ischemia in particular lineages. Our study provides insights into the information that may be obtained by proteomic characterization of tumor samples after undocumented periods of ischemia, and suggests caution especially in interpreting activation of stress pathways in such samples as they may reflect sample handling rather than tumor physiology.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1172452
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-98702; 46206; 400412000
Journal Information:
Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. MCP, 13(7):1690-1704, Journal Name: Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. MCP, 13(7):1690-1704
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English