Quantitative proteomics of transporter expression in brain capillary endothelial cells isolated from P-glycoprotein (P-gp), breast cancer resistance protein (Bcrp), and P-gp/Bcrp knockout mice

Abstract

The objective of this study was to quantitatively examine the protein expression of relevant transporters and other proteins in the brain capillary endothelial cells isolated from wild-type mice and P-glycoprotein (P-gp), breast cancer resistance protein (Bcrp), and P-gp/Bcrp knockout mice. After the isolation of brain capillary endothelial cells, a highly sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method with multiple reaction monitoring was used to determine the quantitative expression of membrane transporters at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) of the various mouse genotypes. Quantitative expression of 29 protein molecules, including 12 ATP-binding cassette transporters, 10 solute carrier transporters, five receptors, and two housekeeping proteins, was examined by quantitative proteomics in the four mouse genotypes. There was no significant difference in the expression of P-gp between the wild-type and Bcrp1(-/-) mice. Likewise, Bcrp expression was not significantly different between the wild-type and Mdr1a/b(-/-) mice. There was no significant difference in the expression of any of the measured proteins in the brain capillary endothelial cells across the genotypes, except for the lack of expression of the corresponding protein in the mice that had a genetic deletion of P-gp or Bcrp. In conclusion, using a quantitative proteomic approach, we have shown that there are no changes in the expression of several relevant transporters in brain capillary endothelial cells isolated from single and combination knockout mice. These data suggest that the mechanism behind the functional compensation between P-gp and Bcrp at the BBB is not related to compensatory changes in transporter expression.

Fig. 1.

Comparison of absolute protein expression levels of transporters in isolated brain capillary endothelial cells between ddY wild-type mice and FVB wild-type mice. Protein expression levels in ddY mice reported by Kamiie et al. (2008) were compared with protein expression in FVB mice determined in this study. The data suggest that there was no difference in the transporter expression between the FVB mice and ddY mice.