OBJECTIVETo study different protein expressions in urine of chronic renal failure (CRF) patients of different Chinese medicine (CM) syndrome types.

METHODSRecruited were 251 CRF inpatients at the Department of Nephrology, Affiliated Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from January 2009 to January 2010. Of them, there were 34 patients in Gan-Shen yin deficiency group (GSYDG), 75 in Pi-Shen qi deficiency group (PSQDG), 56 in Pi-Shen qi-yin deficiency group (PSQYG), 32 in Pi-Shen yang deficiency group (PSYDG), and 54 in yin-yang deficiency group (YYDG). Another 50 healthy subjects were recruited as the control group. The proteomic study of the urine was performed with H4 gene chip using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS). The gene chips were scanned and analyzed using protein array reader PBSII.

RESULTSA total of 49 differential protein peaks were detected between CM syndrome types groups and the control group (P<0.01). The area under the ROC curve of different CM syndrome types showed that obvious difference existed between GSYDG and PSQDG, PSQYG, PSYDG, and YYDG. Obvious difference existed between PSQYD and PSYDG. General difference existed between PSQDG and PSQDG as well as PSYDG. General difference existed between PSQYD and YYDG or between PSYDG and YYDG. No obvious difference existed between PSQDG and YYDG.

CONCLUSIONUrine protein biomarkers could reflect different biological features of CRF patients of different CM syndrome types to some extent.