Comparative Proteomic Analysis of Oviduct.

As one of most important traditional Chinese medicine resources, the oviduct of female (Chinese brown frog) was widely used in the treatment of asthenia after sickness or delivery, deficiency in vigor, palpitation, and insomnia. Unlike other vertebrates, the oviduct of oviduct significantly expands during prehibernation, in contrast to the breeding period. To explain this phenomenon at the molecular level, the protein expression profiles of oviduct during the breeding period and prehibernation were observed using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) technique. Then, all identified proteins were used to obtain gene ontology (GO) annotation. Ultimately, KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) enrichment analysis was performed to predict the pathway on differentially expressed proteins (DEPs). A total of 4479 proteins were identified, and 312 of them presented different expression profiling between prehibernation and breeding period. Compared with prehibernation group, 86 proteins were upregulated, and 226 proteins were downregulated in breeding period. After KEGG enrichment analysis, 163 DEPs were involved in 6 pathways, which were lysosome, RNA transport, glycosaminoglycan degradation, extracellular matrix (ECM)⁻receptor interaction, metabolic pathways and focal adhesion. This is the first report on the protein profiling of oviduct during the breeding period and prehibernation. Results show that this distinctive physiological phenomenon of oviduct was mainly involved in ECM⁻receptor interaction, metabolic pathways, and focal adhesion.