Abstract: To study the molecular mechanisms of asthma, the bronchial asthma model was established with OVA-sensitized Wistar rats. The differentially expressed spleen lymphocyte proteomes between asthmatic rats and normal rats were profiled and the proteins were identified via two-dimensional electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF-MS. The results reveal that the expression of some protein genes was up-regulated in asthmatic rats in comparison with the normal rats. These includes hnRNPK, involving the transcriptional regulation of collagen proteins, and cell structural protein Fibrinogen. However, the energetic metabolism-relating protein such as CoQ₁₀ and mitochondrial inner membrane protein were exhibited to be down-regulated. Further analysis using bioinformatic tools suggests that the above-mentioned proteins are likely important components involving the airway chronic inflammation, airway hyper-responsiveness and airway remodeling of asthmatic rats.

Key words: Bronchial asthma, Lymphocyte, Differential proteome, 2-DE/MS