Proteomic Approaches to Identify and Characterize Alterations to the Mitochondrial Proteome in Alcoholic Liver Disease

Mitochondrial dysfunction is recognized as a contributing factor to a number of diseases, including chronic alcohol-induced hepatotoxicity. Although there is a detailed understanding of the metabolic pathways and proteins of the liver mitochondrion, little is known of how changes in the mitochondrial proteome contribute to the development of hepatic pathologies. In this short overview the insights gained from study of changes in the mitochondrial proteome in alcoholic liver disease will be described. Profiling the liver mitochondrial proteome has the potential to shed light on the alcohol-mediated molecular defects responsible for mitochondrial and cellular dysfunction. The methods presented herein demonstrate the power of using complementary proteomics approaches, that is, 2-D IEF/SDS-PAGE and BN-PAGE, to identify changes in the abundance of mitochondrial proteins after chronic alcohol consumption. These proteomic data can then be integrated into a logical and mechanistic framework to further our understanding of the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of alcohol-induced liver disease.