Abstract
We employed laser microdissection to selectively harvest histology-resolved tumors and stroma from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tissues. Peptide digests from the LMD-enriched HNSCC tissue were analyzed by quantitative mass-spectrometry-based proteomics using a data independent analysis approach. In paired samples, excellent proteome coverage was achieved, having quantified 6668 proteins with a median quantitative coefficient of variation under 10%. Significant differences in relevant functional pathways between the tumor and the stroma regions were observed. Extracellular matrix (ECM) was identified as a major component enriched in the stroma, including many cancer-associated fibroblast signature proteins in this compartment. We demonstrate the potential for comparative deep proteome analysis from a very low starting input in a scalable format. Correlating such results with clinical features or disease progression will likely enable the identification of novel targets for disease classification and interventions.