771 (2002) 221–236 Journal of Chromatography B, www.elsevier.com / locate / chromb Review Database of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid proteins a, b a a * ¨ Isabelle Noel-Georis , Alfred Bernard , Paul Falmagne , Ruddy Wattiez a Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Mons-Hainaut, Avenue du Champs de Mars 6, B-7000 Mons, Belgium b Unit of Industrial Toxicology and Occupational Medicine, School of Medicine, Catholic University of Louvain, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium Abstract Bronchoalveolar lavage during fiberoptic bronchoscopy is extensively used for investigating cellular and biochemical alterations of the epithelial lining fluid in various lung disorders. Two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) offers the possibility to simultaneously display and analyze proteins contained in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). We present the current status of 2-DE of BALF samples with an updated listing of the proteins already identified and of their level and / or posttranslational alterations in lung disorders. Alternatives to 2-DE of BALF samples and future prospects of proteomics to unravel lung functions and pathologies are discussed.  2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Reviews; Bronchoalveloar lavage; Proteomics; Proteins Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................ 221 2. History of proteomics with BALF samples ................................................................................................................................ 223 3. 2-DE of BALF: state of the art ................................................................................................................................................. 223 4. Updated database of proteins present in BALF 2-DE maps ......................................................................................................... 227 5. 2-DE mapping of BAL protein alterations in lung disease .......................................................................................................... 229 6. 2-DE mapping of protein alterations in other body fluids in lung disease ..................................................................................... 232 7. Future directions of BAL fluid proteomics ................................................................................................................................ 233 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................................................... 234 References .................................................................................................................................................................................. 234 1. Introduction which has proven useful to collect cells and a wide variety of soluble components from the human lung: Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) performed during phospholipids, nucleic acids and proteins, originating fiberoptic bronchoscopy is a relatively safe technique from the thin layer of epithelial lining fluid (ELF) that covers the airways [1]. Centrifugation of BAL allows the separation of cells from the supernatant *Corresponding author. Tel.: 132-65-373-312; fax: 132-65- BAL fluid (BALF) that contains the soluble com- 373-320. ponents of the ELF. ¨ E-mail addresses: isabelle.georis@umh.ac.be (I. Noel-Georis), ruddy.wattiez@umh.ac.be (R. Wattiez). The cellular content of BAL mainly consists of 1570-0232 / 02 / $ – see front matter  2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S1570-0232(02)00114-9