Figure 5.

Bioinformatic analysis of the acupuncture-specific differentially expressed proteins in asthma onset. (a) Functional classification of the identified proteins using the PANTHER classification system. Proteins that were differentially expressed following acupuncture were classified into diverse functional categories according to biological process. (b) The STRING network of known protein-protein interactions among the seven inflammation-related proteins (marked by colored rectangles) regulated by acupuncture. Circle nodes indicate intermediate proteins not detected in the proteomic study (RAC2, RAS-related C3 botulinum substrate 2; GDI2, Rab GDI beta; CDC42, Cell division control protein 42 homolog; ANXA6, Annexin A6; TTF-1, Thyroid transcription factor 1). S100A9 (green circle) is an inflammation-related protein regulated by acupuncture, which was determined in our previous study [16]. The network edges represent the predicted functional associations, and stronger associations are represented by darker lines.