Figure 5.

Custom proteomic analysis of aortic tissue lysates from AAD patients. (A) Twenty-three proteins that belonged to five subcellular compartments (nucleus, granules, cytoplasm/cytoskeleton, enzymes, and plasma membrane) were identified to build a custom “NETosis” pathway. Profile plot from the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) showing highly significant enrichment of most proteins in the custom NETosis pathway in the 4 replicates (TAAD1-3, TBAD 4) compared with negative control subjects (CTRL1-2). The false discovery rate–adjusted P value for this analysis, according to GSEA output, was < 0.01. (B) The expression of granules and nuclear NET components was significantly higher, and non-granular enzymes and membrane components were mildly enriched in aortic tissue from AAD patients. (C) Neutrophil elastase was significantly higher in aortic tissue from the AAD group than in aortic tissue from the control group. (D,E) The elastase level in patients with in-hospital death or without 1-year survival was significantly higher than that in patients without in-hospital death or with 1-year survival. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01.