Wen Xi, Franchi Lorenzo, Chen Feng, Gu Yan
Department of orthodontics, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Haidian District, PR. China.
National Engineering Laboratory for Digital and Material Technology of Stomatology, Beijing Key Laboratory of Digital Stomatology, Haidian District, PR. China.
Eur J Orthod. 2018 Jul 27;40(4):414-422. doi: 10.1093/ejo/cjx082.
Detection of pubertal growth peak is vital in orthodontic treatment timing and planning. Gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) contains abundant proteins from different sources and is an ideal source of biomarkers. The aim of this research is to detect candidate GCF biomarkers of pubertal growth by tandem mass tags (TMT) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to help diagnosis and treatment planning of functional treatment.
Forty subjects were recruited and were divided into pubertal and post-pubertal groups according to cervical vertebral maturation method. GCF samples were collected by paper points. GCF proteome of pubertal and post-pubertal subjects was compared by TMT labelling coupled with LC-MS/MS.
A total of 537 proteins were detected in GCF samples, with 183 proteins detected in GCF for the first time. These proteins were involved in processes of immune response, ion transport, and signal transduction. The GCF concentration of vitamin D binding protein (DBP) and seroserotransferrin (Tf) was significantly higher in pubertal than that in post-pubertal subjects. DBP and Tf, therefore, were considered to be candidate biomarkers of pubertal growth. This result was validated using GCF samples from new subjects (P < 0.05).
Our results indicate that TMT labelling coupled with LC-MS/MS were proved to be a useful method for proteomic analysis of GCF with high accuracy. The expression of DBP and Tf was increased in children at circumpubertal stage and can be considered candidate biomarkers of pubertal growth.
青春期生长高峰的检测对于正畸治疗时机和方案规划至关重要。龈沟液（GCF）含有来自不同来源的丰富蛋白质，是生物标志物的理想来源。本研究旨在通过串联质量标签（TMT）和液相色谱-串联质谱（LC-MS/MS）检测青春期生长的候选龈沟液生物标志物，以辅助功能矫治的诊断和治疗规划。
招募40名受试者，根据颈椎成熟度方法分为青春期组和青春期后组。用纸条收集龈沟液样本。通过TMT标记结合LC-MS/MS比较青春期和青春期后受试者的龈沟液蛋白质组。
在龈沟液样本中共检测到537种蛋白质，其中183种蛋白质是首次在龈沟液中检测到。这些蛋白质参与免疫反应、离子转运和信号转导过程。青春期受试者龈沟液中维生素D结合蛋白（DBP）和血清转铁蛋白（Tf）的浓度显著高于青春期后受试者。因此，DBP和Tf被认为是青春期生长的候选生物标志物。使用新受试者的龈沟液样本验证了该结果（P < 0.05）。
我们的结果表明，TMT标记结合LC-MS/MS被证明是一种用于龈沟液蛋白质组分析的有用方法，具有较高的准确性。DBP和Tf在青春期前后儿童中的表达增加，可被认为是青春期生长的候选生物标志物。
