Differential Proteomic Identification and Bioinformatics Analysis of Femoral Neck in Elderly Female Patients with Hyperuricaemia

Abstract

Serum uric acid (UA) is positively correlated with bone mineral density (BMD). However, the mechanism by which serum UA affects BMD remains unclear. The aim was carried out to search for the functional proteins related to serum UA and femoral neck BMD to better understand the pathophysiological mechanism of osteoporosis. In this study, patients in the UA group (hyperuricaemia combined with femoral neck fracture) and the control group (normal uricaemia combined with femoral neck fracture) were selected according to the inclusion criteria. Total protein was extracted from the femoral neck of each patient. Fluorescence differential gel electrophoresis was used to separate the total proteins, and the differentially expressed protein spots were detected by image analysis. After enzyme digestion, peptide mass fingerprinting and database searches were performed to identify the differentially expressed proteins. DAVID software and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) data were used for enrichment analysis of the screened differential proteins. After mass spectrometry and database searching, 66 differentially expressed protein spots were identified between the UA group and the control group. Most differentially expressed proteins functioned in cytoskeleton formation, energy metabolism, or signal transduction. They were mainly involved in 50 biological processes, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signalling and fatty acid metabolism. PPARγ and PLIN1 were subject to Western blotting analysis detection; results were consistent with the Label-Free result. Based on an analysis of the biological information, these proteins may be associated with the incidence and progression of the femoral neck bone tissues of hyperuricaemia patients.