Abstract

Cervico-vaginal fluid has important function in the homeostasis and immunity of the lower female genital tract. Additionally, cervico-vaginal fluid has great potential as a source of biomarkers for female reproductive tract disease. Current evidence about the proteomic characterization of this fluid does not allow an exact baseline to be determined for the study of biomarkers due to the high variability of techniques used, cohort samples from non-homogeneous patients, a small number of patients studied. Our research group has developed a clinical protocol for obtaining biological samples of cervico-vaginal fluid from a cohort of healthy fertile age chilean women, which has allowed us to carry out proteomics studies with the aim of characterizing the proteome core of this fluid in healthy chilean women. For this study 96 samples of vaginal cervical fluid from 20 patients in the mid-luteal phase were used, carrying out protein extractions using lysis buffer, the digestion of the proteins with trypsin was performed and the peptide mixture was analyzed in the TimsTofPro mass spectrometer coupled to nano elute nanoHPLC (Bruker Daltoniks). A total of 8291 proteins have been identified in all experiments performed. Establishing a Core Proteome composed of 876 proteins. Additionally, we found OVGP1, a specific fallopian tube marker protein. What gives us evidence that vaginal cervical fluid is a source of markers of the upper female reproductive system. Further characterization of cervico-vaginal fluid proteins would contribute to a better search the new proteomics biomarker in the gynecological and obstetrics disease.