Protein expression mapping of normal human breast epithelium

Excerpt

Breast cancer prognosis and treatment could theoretically be improved by definition of the tumour-specific changes that take place in both gene expression and, by inference, in the protein expression profile, herein termed the proteome. Proteomics describes the unique protein expression profile of a sample by using refined two-dimensional gel analysis to produce a protein expression map (PEM) that can include information on post-translational modification and subcellular localisation. Use of normal breast epithelial cells as a baseline for these studies may be hindered by use of established cell lines that may be unrepresentative of normal breast epithelium, or conversely, by the heterogeneity of cell phenotypes contained in normal breast tissue. …