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We have undertaken to continue the proteomic study of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) using the combination of 2-DE, automated trypsin digestion, and PMF analysis after MALDI-TOF MS and peptide sequencing using nano LC-ESI-MS/MS. The overall functional characterization of the 162 identified proteins from primary cultures of HUVECs confirms the metabolic capabilities of endothelium and illustrates various cellular functions more related to cell motility and angiogenesis, protein folding, anti-oxidant defenses, signal transduction, proteasome pathway and resistance to apoptosis. In comparison with controls cells, the differential proteomic analysis of HUVECs treated by the pro-apoptotic topoisomerase inhibitor etoposide further revealed the variation of eight proteins, namely, GRP78, GRP94, valosin-containing protein, proteinase inhibitor 9, cofilin, 37-kDa laminin receptor protein, bovine apolipoprotein, and tropomyosin. These data suggest that etoposide-induced apoptosis of human vascular endothelial cells results from the intricate involvement of multiple apoptosis processes including at least the mitochondrial and the ER stress pathways. The presented 2-D pattern and protein database, as well as the data related to apoptosis of HUVECs, are available at http://www.huvec.com.

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Hyponatremia with increased osmolar gap related to endogenous solutes accumulation is observed frequently in hyponatremic intensive care patients, especially in patients with the most severe organ dysfunctions. The nature of the endogenous solutes accounting for the increased osmolar gap remains to be determined. Simultaneous correction of sodium and osmolar gap suggests a causal link between increased osmolar gap and hyponatremia and may support the concept of sick cell syndrome.

Aside from the disadvantage that the QPCR assays can only be used in clinical biochemistry laboratories that possess QPCR apparatus, the use of direct PicoGreen quantification displays major advantages in a routine context: it is less time-consuming and is quite inexpensive, but is still correlated with QPCR.

The GEM Premier 4000 analytical performance was validated for all parameters with the accuracy and the reliability of traditional systems. This blood gas analyzer fulfills most of the requirements for both point-of-care and laboratory use.

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