Mass spectrometric profile of the serum as a marker of experimental psychoemotional stress in rats

Mass spectrometric profiling of blood serum from stressed and control rats was used for the detection of stress marker proteins. Profiling with reversed-phase chips revealed 6 discriminatory mass spectrometry peaks. Cluster analysis showed that the animals can be divided into 2 groups by the intensity of these peaks. One group mainly consists of stressed rats, while other includes control specimens. Profiling of serum samples after fractionation on reversed-phase magnetic granules allowed us to identify an 8910-Da biomarker. Our results indicate that mass spectrometric profiling holds much promise for the detection of stress markers in the serum.