Abstract
BACKGROUND The present study was performed to explore the presence of informative protein biomarkers of human serum proteome in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). MATERIAL AND METHODS Serum samples were profiled using iTRAQ coupled with two-dimensional liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (2D-LC-MS/MS) technique, and ELISA was used to validate candidate biomarkers. RESULTS A total of 394 proteins were identified and 97 proteins were associated with IPF. Four biomarker candidates generated from iTRAQ experiments - CRP, fibrinogen-α chain, haptoglobin, and kininogen-1 - were successfully verified using ELISA. CONCLUSIONS The present study demonstrates that levels of CRP and fibrinogen-a are higher and levels of haptoglobin and kininogen-1 are lower in patients with IPF compared to levels in healthy controls. We found they are useful candidate biomarkers for IPF.