Human cardiac fibroblast membrane proteome

Cardiac Fibroblasts (CFs) are one of the main cell populations in the heart and play important roles in tissue homeostasis and in myocardial fibrosis. The study of these cells has been hampered by the lack of reliable membrane markers: none of the antigens currently used for characterization and isolation of CFs is unique for this cell type. This issue has also raised doubts regarding a distinct identity of cardiac fibroblasts when comparing to other myocardium cell populations with similar morphologies. In this work, we report a comprehensive description and functional analysis of human CFs (hCFs) enriched membrane fraction proteome by advanced proteomic mass spectrometry-based tools. A total number of 1478 proteins were identified, including a 916 membrane proteins (62%). We also report on the identification of a set of 37 membrane proteins specific for hCFs by direct comparison with proteome lists of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), human dermal fibroblasts (hDFs) and human cardiac stem cells (hCSCs, hCSCs membrane proteome list is also available in this repository). The data reported in this work is a valuable source of information for further studies aiming at the discovery of a membrane molecular signature of hCFs.