Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Feb:67:460-70.
doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2013.12.004. Epub 2013 Dec 11.

Proteomic identification and quantification of S-glutathionylation in mouse macrophages using resin-assisted enrichment and isobaric labeling

Affiliations

Proteomic identification and quantification of S-glutathionylation in mouse macrophages using resin-assisted enrichment and isobaric labeling

Dian Su et al. Free Radic Biol Med. 2014 Feb.

Abstract

S-Glutathionylation (SSG) is an important regulatory posttranslational modification on protein cysteine (Cys) thiols, yet the role of specific cysteine residues as targets of modification is poorly understood. We report a novel quantitative mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomic method for site-specific identification and quantification of S-glutathionylation across different conditions. Briefly, this approach consists of initial blocking of free thiols by alkylation, selective reduction of glutathionylated thiols, and covalent capture of reduced thiols using thiol affinity resins, followed by on-resin tryptic digestion and isobaric labeling with iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation) for MS-based identification and quantification. The overall approach was initially validated by application to RAW 264.7 mouse macrophages treated with different doses of diamide to induce glutathionylation. A total of 1071 Cys sites from 690 proteins were identified in response to diamide treatment, with ~90% of the sites displaying >2-fold increases in SSG modification compared to controls. This approach was extended to identify potential SSG-modified Cys sites in response to H2O2, an endogenous oxidant produced by activated macrophages and many pathophysiological stimuli. The results revealed 364 Cys sites from 265 proteins that were sensitive to S-glutathionylation in response to H2O2 treatment, thus providing a database of proteins and Cys sites susceptible to this modification under oxidative stress. Functional analysis revealed that the most significantly enriched molecular function categories for proteins sensitive to SSG modifications were free radical scavenging and cell death/survival. Overall the results demonstrate that our approach is effective for site-specific identification and quantification of SSG-modified proteins. The analytical strategy also provides a unique approach to determining the major pathways and cellular processes most susceptible to S-glutathionylation under stress conditions.

Keywords: Hydrogen peroxide; Macrophage; Protein thiols; Proteomics; Redox regulation; Resin-assisted enrichment; S-Glutathionylation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(A) Strategy for enriching and site-specific identification of SSG-modified Cys-peptides. Ascorbate coupled with CuCl was used for selective reduction of SNO. NEM was used to alkylate free thiols. The cocktail of Grx, GSH, GR, and NADPH was used for selectively reducing protein-SSG. iTRAQ labeling of enriched Cys-peptides was carried out on-resin, followed by DTT elution. (B) Experimental strategy for multiplex quantification of SSG-modified peptides. Cells were treated by different doses of exogenous stimuli. After on-resin iTRAQ labeling, the eluted peptides are subjected to either SDS-PAGE or combined for LC-MS/MS analyses.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Optimization of reduction conditions. (A) Anti-SSG Western blot image of cell lysates from macrophages treated with different concentrations of diamide. (B) Anti-SSG Western blot images of non-reduced and reduced cell lysates from diamide treated macrophages. All cells were treated with 1 mM diamide followed by enrichment of cellular proteins using Grx reduction cocktail or using Grx only. (C) SDS-PAGE of enriched proteins. Samples were reduced by the complete reduction cocktail or with Grx3 omitted followed by resin-assisted enrichment and protein-level elution. The reduction cocktail contains 2.5 μg/mL Grx3, 0.5 mM GSH, 1 mM NADPH, and 4 U/mL of GR.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
(A) An MS/MS spectrum of a Cys-peptide from GAPDH; (B) Zoom-in spectrum of reporter-ion region showing the SSG abundance increased in response to diamide treatments; (C) Overall MS reporter ion intensities from summing all identified SSG-peptides from control and diamide-treated samples.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
(A) Silver-staining image of SDS-PAGE of enriched Cys-peptides; (B) Selected Cys-sites showing increased levels of SSG modifications in response to H2O2 treatments. The treatment concentrations of H2O2 were in μM.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
(A) Western blots of selected SSG-modified proteins. SSG-modified proteins were first enriched by thiol-affinity resin. The eluted proteins were subjected to Western blotting using specific antibodies against individual proteins. (B) Increased levels of SSG-modifications on individual Cys-sites from these proteins in response to H2O2 treatments. The treatment concentrations of H2O2 were in μM.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
(A) Distribution of molecular types of identified sensitive SSG-modified proteins from H2O2 treatments; (B) Top significant molecular function categories. Significance levels are indicated by −log Pvalue (blue bar). The red bar indicates the number of proteins in each category.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Bachi A, Dalle-Donne I, Scaloni A. Redox proteomics: chemical principles, methodological approaches and biological/biomedical promises. Chem Rev. 2013;113:596–698. - PubMed
    1. Finkel T. Signal transduction by reactive oxygen species. J Cell Biol. 2011;194:7–15. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Janssen-Heininger YM, Mossman BT, Heintz NH, Forman HJ, Kalyanaraman B, Finkel T, Stamler JS, Rhee SG, van der Vliet A. Redox-based regulation of signal transduction: principles, pitfalls, and promises. Free Radic Biol Med. 2008;45:1–17. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Winterbourn CC, Hampton MB. Thiol chemistry and specificity in redox signaling. Free Radic Biol Med. 2008;45:549–561. - PubMed
    1. Held JM, Gibson BW. Regulatory control or oxidative damage? Proteomic approaches to interrogate the role of cysteine oxidation status in biological processes. Molecular & cellular proteomics : MCP. 2012;11:R111–013037. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types