Two-dimensional gel electrophoretic comparison of cytoplasmic proteins in C3H10T1/2 cells, a chemically transformed 10T1/2 line, and a transformation resistant C3H mouse ventral prostate cell line.

The cytoplasmic proteins from three cell lines derived from the C3H mouse were compared after treatment with benzo(a)pyrene by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and computerized image analysis. The three C3H lines were the transformable 10T1/2, the transformation resistant CVP and the methylcholanthrene transformed 10T1/2Cl line. Specialized algorithms were used to analyze gel images to record and compare individual proteins in the three cytoplasmic preparations. Multiple replicate gels were used to construct a master image to insure all the proteins were represented in the analytical system. In studies designed to examine the efficacy of utilizing image analysis, benzo(a)pyrene treatment caused significant alteration in the expression of numerous proteins in all three cell lines. Comparative analysis between cell types also showed most of the induced and repressed proteins were unique to a given cell line and did not match the induced or repressed proteins in either of the other cell lines. These results suggest that the response to chemical carcinogen treatment may be somewhat cell-specific and result in a variable response to the cells ability to respond to the chemical insult.