Proteomic Analysis Revealed the Characteristics of Key Proteins Involved in the Regulation of Inflammatory Response, Leukocyte Transendothelial Migration, Phagocytosis, and Immune Process during Early Lung Blast Injury

Previous studies found that blast injury caused a significant increased expression of interleukin-1, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor, a significant decrease in the expression of IL-10, an increase in Evans blue leakage, and a significant increase in inflammatory cell infiltration in the lungs. However, the molecular characteristics of lung injury at different time points after blast exposure have not yet been reported. Therefore, in this study, tandem mass spectrometry (TMT) quantitative proteomics and bioinformatics analysis were used for the first time to gain a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanism of lung blast injury at different time points. Forty-eight male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into six groups: control, 12 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and 1 w after low-intensity blast exposure. TMT quantitative proteomics and bioinformatics analysis were performed to analyze protein expression profiling in the lungs from control and blast-exposed mice, and differential protein expression was verified by Western blotting. The results demonstrated that blast exposure induced severe lung injury, leukocyte infiltration, and the production of inflammatory factors in mice. After analyzing the expression changes in global proteins and inflammation-related proteomes after blast exposure, the results showed that a total of 6861 global proteins and 608 differentially expressed proteins were identified, of which 215, 128, 187, 232, and 65 proteins were identified at 12 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and 1 week after blast exposure, respectively. Moreover, blast exposure-induced 177 differentially expressed proteins were associated with inflammatory responses, which were enriched in the inflammatory response regulation, leukocyte transendothelial migration, phagocytosis, and immune response. Therefore, blast exposure may induce early inflammatory response of lung tissue by regulating the expression of key proteins in the inflammatory process, suggesting that early inflammatory response may be the initiating factor of lung blast injury. These data can provide potential therapeutic candidates or approaches for the development of future treatment of lung blast injury.