Submitted on March 15, 2006
Revised on June 2, 2006
Accepted on June 14, 2006
Protein biomarkers in a mouse model of extremes in trait anxiety
Claudia Ditzen, Archana M. Jastorff, Melanie S. Kessler, Mirjam Bunck, Larysa Teplytska, Angelika Erhardt, Simone A. Krömer, Jeeva Varadarajulu, Bianca-Sabrina Targosz, Eser F. Sayan-Ayata, Forian Holsboer, Rainer Landgraf, and Christoph W. Turck
Proteomics, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich D-80804
Corresponding Author: turck{at}mpipsykl.mpg.de
Brain proteome analysis of mice selectively bred for either high or low anxiety-related behavior revealed quantitative and qualitative protein expression differences. The enzyme glyoxalase-I is consistently expressed to a higher extent in low anxiety as compared to high anxiety mice in several brain areas. The same phenotype-dependent difference was also found in red blood cells with normal and cross-mated animals showing intermediate expression profiles of glyoxalase-I. Another protein that shows a different mobility during twodimensional gel electrophoresis was identified as enolase phosphatase. The presence of both protein markers in red or white blood cells, respectively, creates the opportunity to screen for their expression in clinical blood specimens from patients suffering from anxiety.