Abstract: Objective To screen tumor biomarkers in the plasma close related with hypopharyngeal carcinoma. Methods Pooled
plasm from 6 patients with hypopharyngeal carcinoma and 6 healthy individuals were collected. After removal of
high-abundance plasm proteins, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) was performed to isolate the total proteins, and
the protein spots with more than 2-fold differential expressions were detected by 2D analysis software followed by
identification by MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometer. Western blotting was performed to validate the expression level of α
2-HS-glycoprotein. Results A total of 11 differentially expressed protein spots were selected, including 5 upregulated proteins
and 6 downregulated proteins. MALDI-TOF/TOF identified the upregulated proteins in hypopharyngeal carcinoma patients
as alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein and haptoglobin and downregulated ones as Ig kappa chain C region and apolipoprotein A-I.
Western blotting demonstrated that α-2-HS- glycoprotein expression level was consistent with that detected by 2-DE.
Conclusion Patients with hypopharyngeal carcinoma show different plasma protein profiles from healthy individuals. These
differentially expressed proteins may serve as potential specific tumor biomarkers for hypopharyngeal carcinoma.