Modulations of tissue-specific secretome profiles, triggered by obesity and sedentary lifestyle, or influenced by physical activity are supposed to play a crucial role in the development, prevention and therapy of metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes.
At the German Diabetes Center we have established an analysis platform to investigate secretomes from insulin sensitive tissues, i.e. adipose tissue, skeletal muscle and liver. To enable comprehensive secretome characterization studies, an adequate sample processing procedures together with different complementary proteomic profiling techniques (e.g. Gel-based and gel-free MS approaches, Multiplex Immunoassays) are the crucial prerequisites. In accordance to that, we developed standard operation procedures and a close quality control to generate high quality samples suitable for comparative analysis. Constantly expanding protein maps, available under Diabesityprot.org, will help to achieve a deeper understanding for the complex and dynamic interplay of proteins involved in the communication between different tissues and its alteration in disease pathophysiology.
Ultimately, tissue specific secretomes, provide a treasure trove of novel disease related marker proteins, which potentially can be used for diagnostic or therapy purpose of multifactorial metabolic disorders.