Analyzing the Cardiac Muscle Proteome by Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry-Based Expression

Cardiomyopathies are diseases of the heart resulting in impaired cardiac muscle func-tion, which can lead to heart dilation or overt heart failure. These diseases represent a major cause of global morbidity and death. Innovative preventive and therapeutic mea-sures are urgently needed for early detection, categorization, and treatment of patients at risk of cardiomyopathy. These developments will require a more complete understand-ing of the molecular effects of impaired cardiac function, even prior to overt disease. The use of gel-free expression proteomics in the detailed analysis of cardiac tissues should yield significant insight into the pathophysiology of these diseases. Key Words: Cardiac muscle; multidimensional protein identification technology (MudPIT); mass spectrometry