Down syndrome, caused by the trisomy of chromosome 21, is a complex condition characterized by a number of phenotypic features, including reduced neuron number and synaptic plasticity, early Alzheimer disease-like neurodegeneration, craniofacial dysmorphia, heart development defects, increased incidence of childhood leukemia, and powerful suppression of the incidence of most solid tumors. Mouse models replicate a number of these phenotypes. The Tc1 Down syndrome model was constructed by introducing a single supernumerary human chromosome 21 into a mouse embryonic stem cell, and it reproduces a large number of Down syndrome phenotypes including heart development defects. However, little is still known about the developmental onset of the trisomy 21-induced mechanisms behind these phenotypes or the proteins that are responsible for them. This study determined the proteomic differences that are present in undifferentiated embryonic stem cells and are caused by an additional human chromosome 21. A total of 1661 proteins were identified using two-dimensional liquid chromatography followed by tandem mass spectrometry from whole embryonic stem cell lysates. Using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification, we found 52 proteins that differed in expression by greater than two standard deviations from the mean when an extra human chromosome 21 was present. Of these, at least 11 have a possible functional association with a Down syndrome phenotype or a human chromosome 21-encoded gene. This study also showed that quantitative protein expression differences in embryonic stem cells can persist to adult mouse as well as reproduce in human Down syndrome fetal tissue. This indicates that changes that are determined in embryonic stem cells of Down syndrome could potentially identify proteins that are involved in phenotypes of Down syndrome, and it shows that these cell lines can be used for the purpose of studying these pathomechanisms. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 8:585-595, 2009.
Down syndrome (DS)1 is caused by trisomy of human chromosome 21 (HSA21) and has an incidence of 1 in 650 live births (1). Mental retardation, smaller brain size, reduced numbers of neurons, reduced dendritic spine density and plasticity, and early Alzheimer disease-like neurodegeneration are seen in all people with DS, and a plethora of other phenotypes have a variable expression (1, 2). These include phenotypes that are seen only in a subset of DS individuals, such as heart defects, duodenal stenosis, and childhood leukemia. Interestingly there is a lower incidence of most solid tumors in people with DS (3).Mouse models mimic some of the phenotypes seen in DS. TS65Dn, which contains ϳ50% of the genes homologous for HSA21 in three copies, exhibits craniofacial skeletal malformation (4) and reduced cerebellar volume and granular and Purkinje cell densities (5). TS65Dn also displays learning and behavioral deficits (6). Ts1Cje is trisomic for ϳ 2 ⁄3 of the triplicated genes in TS65Dn and displays generally a similar but less severe phenot...