At present, there is no accurate method for evaluating the quality of liver transplant from a brain-dead donor. Proteomics are used to investigate the mechanisms involved in brain death‑induced liver injury and to identify sensitive biomarkers. In the present study, age‑ and gender‑matched rabbits were randomly divided into the brain death and sham groups. The sham served as the control. A brain‑death model was established using an intracranial progressive pressurized method. The differentially expressed proteins extracted from the liver tissues of rabbits that were brain‑dead for 6 h in the two groups were determined by two‑dimensional gel electrophoresis and matrix‑assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry. Although there was no obvious functional and morphological difference in 2, 4 and 6 h after brain death, results of the proteomics analysis revealed 973±34 and 987±38 protein spots in the control and brain death groups, respectively. Ten proteins exhibited a ≥2‑fold alteration. The downregulated proteins were: aldehyde dehydrogenase, runt‑related transcription factor 1 (RUNX1), inorganic pyrophosphatase, glutamate‑cysteine ligase regulatory subunit and microsomal cytochrome B5. By contrast, the expression of dihydropyrimidinase-related protein 4, peroxiredoxin‑6, 3‑phosphoinositide‑dependent protein kinase‑1, 3-mercaptopyruvate and alcohol dehydrogenase were clearly upregulated. Immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis results revealed that the expression of RUNX1 was gradually increased in a time‑dependent manner in 2, 4, and 6 h after brain death. In conclusion, alteration of the liver protein expression profile induced by brain death indicated the occurrence of complex pathological changes even if no functional or morphological difference was identified. Thus, RUNX1 may be a sensitive predict factor for evaluating the quality of brain death donated liver.

A large number of previous clinical studies have reported a delayed graft function for brain dead donors, when compared with living relatives or cadaveric organ transplantations. However, there is no accurate method for the quality evaluation of kidneys from brain-dead donors. In the present study, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF MS-based comparative proteomic analysis were conducted to profile the differentially-expressed proteins between brain death and the control group renal tissues. A total of 40 age- and sex-matched rabbits were randomly divided into donation following brain death (DBD) and control groups. Following the induction of brain death via intracranial progressive pressure, the renal function and the morphological alterations were measured 2, 6 and 8 h afterwards. The differentially expressed proteins were detected from renal histological evidence at 6 h following brain death. Although 904±19 protein spots in control groups and 916±25 in DBD groups were identified in the two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, >2-fold alterations were identified by MALDI-TOF MS and searched by NCBI database. The authors successfully acquired five downregulated proteins, these were: Prohibitin (isoform CRA_b), beta-1,3-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 1, Annexin A5, superoxide dismutase (mitochondrial) and cytochrome b-c1 complex subunit 1 (mitochondrial precursor). Conversely, the other five upregulated proteins were: PRP38 pre-mRNA processing factor 38 (yeast) domain containing A, calcineurin subunit B type 1, V-type proton ATPase subunit G 1, NADH dehydrogenase [ubiquinone] 1 beta subcomplex subunit 10 and peroxiredoxin-3 (mitochondrial). Immunohistochemical results revealed that the expressions of prohibitin (PHB) were gradually increased in a time-dependent manner. The results indicated that there were alterations in levels of several proteins in the kidneys of those with brain death, even if the primary function and the morphological changes were not obvious. PHB may therefore be a novel biomarker for primary quality evaluation of kidneys from brain-dead donors.