Proteomics analysis of liver tissues from C57BL/6J mice receiving low-dose 137Cs radiation.

Differentially expressed proteins in liver tissues of C57BL/6J mice receiving low-dose (137)Cs radiation were examined by proteomics analysis. Compared with the control group, 80 proteins were differentially expressed in the irradiated group. Among the 40 randomly selected proteins used for peptide mass fingerprinting analysis and bioinformatics, 24 were meaningful. These proteins were related to antioxidant defense, amino acid metabolism, detoxification, anti-tumor development, amino acid transport, anti-peroxidation, and composition of respiratory chain. Western blot analysis showed that catalase (CAT), glycine N-methyltransferase (GNMT), and glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) were up-regulated in the irradiated group; these results were in agreement with qPCR results. These results show that CAT, GNMT, and GSTP1 may be related to stress response induced by low-dose irradiation in mice liver. The underlying mechanism however requires further investigation.