Proteomic profiling of occupational medicamentosa-like dermatitis induced by trichloroethylene in serum based on MALDI-TOF MS.

Trichloroethylene (TCE) has long been well known as a major pollutant that affects both occupational and general environments. Occupational medicamentosa-like dermatitis induced by TCE (OMLDT) is an autoimmune disease, which has become one of the critical occupational health issues in China. In this study, we analyzed 18 OMLDT patients and 29 professional TCE contact people on serum proteomic analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and ClinProTools bioinformatics software. The intensities of 35 protein/peptide peaks were significantly different between TCE contact controls and OMLDT patients. A pattern of six peaks (m/z 1,450.33, 1,866.16, 3,262.39, 4,109.55, 5,064.85 and 5,956.57) were selected to construct a diagnostic model to discriminate the OMLDT patients from controls with sensitivity and specificity of both 93.8 %. Our findings provide an alternative proteomic approach to differentiate the OMLDT patients from TCE contact workers with high sensitivity and high specificity, which will be of potential value in clinical diagnosis for occupational disease.