The protein profiles of postoperative incision infection after plate internal fixation of calcaneal fractures

BackgroundNowadays, the internal fixation has been an effective way for calcaneal fractures treatment. However, high risk of infection was found after the internal fixation, and the mechnism remains unclear. ObjectiveIn this work, we systematically preformed a comparative proteomic analysis between necrotic tissues and normal soft tissues aiming to find the molecular changes of the tissue during the fixation. MethodThe necrotic tissues (NTs) samples (n = 3) and the normal soft tissues control (NC) samples (n = 3) which was 2 -3 cm away from the NT were collected after the surgery. ALC-MS/MS analysis. A label free quantitation stragy was used to compare the proteome alterations followed by detailed bioinformatic analysis. ResultsA total of 902 and 1286 protein groups were quantified in the NT group and the NC group separately, with 233 proteins upregulated and 484 proteins downregulated in the NT group. Those differently expressed proteins were highly correlated with the metabolic pathways, especially those downregulated proteins in the necrotic tissue indicating an inacitive cell states in the nearby of the plate internal fixation. In addition, the detailed functiona analysis showed that the the upregutated proteins in necrotic tissue were highly enriched in the disease-related functions. ConclusionThis alerted us to clean the wound in time and found a safer strategy for internal fixation. Altogether, the emerging understanding of the proteomic properties in the necrotic tissue will guide the development of new strategies for internal fixation of calcaneal fractures