MALDI-TOF MS-based total serum protein fingerprinting for liver cancer diagnosis.

Serum is one of the most commonly used samples in many studies to identify protein biomarkers to diagnose cancer. Although conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based methods have been applied as clinical tools for diagnosing cancer, there have been troublesome problems, such as inferior multiplexing capabilities, high development costs and long turnaround times, which are inappropriate for high-throughput analytical platforms. Here, we developed a simple and robust cancer diagnostic method using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS)-based total serum protein fingerprinting. First, serum samples were simply diluted with distilled water and subsequently spotted onto a MALDI plate without prior chromatographic purification or separation. The sample preparation method was enough to collect reproducible total serum protein fingerprints and would be highly advantageous for high-throughput assay. Each of the integrated main spectrum profiles (MSPs), which are representative of liver cancer patients (n = 40) or healthy controls (n = 80), was automatically generated by the MALDI Biotyper 3 software. The reliability of the integrated MSPs was successfully evaluated in comparison with a blind test set (n = 31), which consisted of 13 liver cancer patients and 18 healthy controls. Additionally, our partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) demonstrated a statistically significant difference in MALDI-TOF MS-based total serum protein fingerprints between liver cancer patients and healthy controls. Taken together, this work suggests that this method may be an effective high-throughput platform technology for various cancer diagnoses and disease evaluations.

Comparison of bone mineral density between surgical menopausal women and natural menopausal women / 대한산부인과학회잡지

OBJECTIVE: It is widely known that the menopausal complication in the surgical menopause is to proceed rather than that of natural menopause. But, it has not obviously been proven so far. In this study, we surveyed whether BMD between surgical and natural menopausal group, in terms of decrease of the BMD of the menopausal complication would have a difference. METHOD: By using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, we compared 2nd-4th Lumbar spine BMD in 28 of surgical menopause with that of 187 of natural menopause. RESULT: There is no obvious distinction in FSH and estradiol concentration between two groups. Surgical and natural menopausal groups showed the BMD -1.046+/-0.175 g/cm2, -0.942+/-0.124 g/cm2, respectively. Also, there is no statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Although there is no statistical significance in the BMD of the surgical menopausal group was lower than that of the natural menopausal group. Prevention of the menopausal complication as well as decrease of the BMD in the surgical menopausal group needs to be required more active attitude.