Profiling of cell stress protein expression in cardiac tissue of cardiosurgical patients undergoing remote ischemic preconditioning: implications for thioredoxin in cardioprotection

BACKGROUND: Transient episodes of ischemia in a remote organ (remote ischemic preconditioning, RIPC) can attenuate myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury but the underlying mechanisms of RIPC in the target organ are still poorly understood. Recent animal studies suggested that the small redox protein thioredoxin may be a potential candidate for preconditioning-induced organprotection. Here we employed a human proteome profiler array to investigate the RIPC regulated expression of cell stress proteins and particularly of thioredoxin in heart tissue of cardiosurgical patients with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). METHODS: RIPC was induced by four 5 minute cycles of transient upper limb ischemia/reperfusion using a blood pressure cuff. Right atrial tissue was obtained from patients receiving RIPC (N = 19) and control patients (N = 19) before and after CPB. Cell stress proteome profiler arrays as well as Westernblotting and ELISA experiments for thioredoxin (Thio-1) were performed employing the respective tissue samples. RESULTS: Protein arrays revealed an up-regulation of 26.9% (7/26; CA IX, Cyt C, HSP-60, HSP-70, pJNK, SOD2, Thio-1) of cell stress associated proteins in RIPC tissue obtained before CPB, while 3.8% (1/26; SIRT2) of the proteins were down-regulated. Array results for thioredoxin were verified by semi-quantitative Westernblotting studies which showed a significant up-regulation of thioredoxin protein levels in cardiac tissue samples of RIPC patients taken before CPB (RIPC: 5.36 ± 0.85 a.u.; control: 3.23 ± 0.39 a.u.; P < 0.05). Quantification of thioredoxin levels in tissue of RIPC and control patients by ELISA experiments further confirmed the Westernblotting results (RIPC: 0.30 ± 0.02 ng/mg protein; control: 0.24 ± 0.02 ng/mg protein; P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: We provide evidence for thioredoxin as a RIPC-induced factor in heart tissue of cardiosurgical patients and identified several cell stress associated proteins that are regulated by RIPC and may play a role in RIPC-mediated cardioprotection. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-015-0403-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.