Protein expression profiling during injury in rami musculares nervi femoralis and saphenous nerve in rat

Objective To identify the protein profile of rami musculares nervi femoralis and saphenous nerve in rat at 7th day after transection. Methods Total of 20 female adult SD rats, weighing 220-250 g, were included in this study.The right femoral nerve trunk transection was performed to rats, and the left side served as the control group. Seven days later, samples of normal/injured rami musculares nervi femoralis and saphenous nerve were obtained and labeled using iTRAQ (114, 115, 116, 117 were used for labeling normal rami musculares nervi femoralis, injured rami musculares nervi femoralis, normal saphenous nerve, injured saphenous nerve, respectively), and analyzed the data using 2DLC-MS/MS. Results A total of 3 358 proteins were identified.There are 293 differentially expressed proteins in the injured rami musculares nervi femoralis compared to the normal rami musculares nervi femoralis, in which 112 were up-regulated and 181 were down-regulated. There are 417 differentially expressed proteins in the injured saphenous nerve compared to the normal group, in which 184 were up-regulated and 233 were down-regulated. Conclusion We screen out differentially expressed proteins of rami musculares nervi femoralis and saphenous nerve in the process of Wallerian degeneration, which may contribute to the further study in peripheral nerve regeneration.