Proteomics in BAL: improved technique may yield more fish

There has been growing interest in proteomics in the last ten years. Its fields of application are still emerging and include application to a wide spectrum of lung diseases. In this context the proteomic approach has been directed especially to the study of broncholveolar lavage (BAL) protein composition, with the aim of obtaining insights into the pathogenetic mechanisms of lung diseases and of identifying possible dis-ease-specific biomarkers. Proteomic analysis is complex and produces a great mass of data, even more than genomics.Many techniques are available today for a proteomic approach and they can be applied to BAL. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Critical points to be considered before planning research in this field are: appropriate experimental design, reproducible methods and suitable statistical analysis. This means a multidisciplinary approach, exploiting molecular biology, clinical and bioinformatics expertise, is needed. Here we report a summary of recent literature on proteomics in BAL and of our experience in this field.