Proteomic study in the rat hippocampus as a measure of human Alzheimer’s disease

  Introduction: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most common types of dementia. Studying the early stages of AD in human is not possible and thus, most studies are limited to post-mortem brain tissues. Therefore, studying the animal model of AD in order to understand the underlying mechanism and evaluate the molecular processes involved in human form of the disease is inevitable. In this study, with the help of proteomics and bioinformatics, we have studied the proteome of rat hippocampus after injection of Aβ(1-42) and analyzed the data with clustering method.   Materials and Methods: Proteins were extracted from the normal (N) and AD (A) subjects, whom have been injected with Aβ(1-42). Proteins were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Gels were stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue to visualize the protein spots. Proteins in two group samples were analyzed with bioinformatics software;#39s and identified with mass Spectrometry.   Results: Bioinformatic analysis of two-dimensional electrophoretic gels indicated on the presence of 111 specific proteins belong to group N and 67 newly expressed proteins induced by Aβ(1-42) injection. Changes at the molecular level were statistically analyzed by several variables analysis method, such as clustering and groups of proteins with altered expression were categorized in metabolic and regulatory clusters.  Conclusion: identified proteins in rat hippocampus with AD were similar to human form of the disease. Despite the differences between the human and rat ADs, the study of AD can be established as a rat model of the disease. Injection of Aβ(1-42) had also reflected changes at the level of proteins, associated with changes in protein conformation occurring in the disease with some alteration in cellular mechanism