Protein profile of human lung squamous carcinoma cell line NCI-H226

OBJECTIVE: To construct a database of human lung squamous carcinoma cell line NCI-H226 and to facilitate discovery of novel subtypes markers of lung cancer. METHOD: Proteomic technique was used to analyze human lung squamous carcinoma cell line NCI-H226. The proteins of the NCI-H226 cells were separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and identified by mass spectrometry. RESULTS: The results showed that a good reproducibility of the 2-D gel pattern was attained. The position deviation of matched spots among three 2-D gels was 1.95 +/- 0.53 mm in the isoelectric focusing direction, and 1.73 +/- 0.45 mm in the sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis direction. One hundred and twenty-seven proteins, including enzymes, signal transduction proteins, structure proteins, transport proteins, etc. were characterized, of which, 29 identified proteins in NCI-H226 cells were reported for the first time to be involved in lung cancer carcinogenesis. CONCLUSION: The information obtained from this study could provide some valuable clues for further study on the carcinogenetic mechanism of different types of lung cancer, and may help us to discover some potential subtype-specific biomarkers of lung cancer.