ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Precision Medicine
Lactylation omics of rabbit rotator cuff tear reveals differentially modified proteins and metabolic relating therapy targets
Tong Pan
Zhenlong Liu
Institute of Sports Medicine, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China
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Abstract
Proteins exert biological functions not only depending on abundance but also on regulation. Lactylation, a novel post-translational modification, can mediate metabolic reprogramming and epigenetic regulation, playing a crucial role in signal transduction, gene expression and cellular metabolism. Lactylation is also involved in various diseases, such as tumors, Alzheimer's disease, heart failure and myocardial infarction. However, there is little research in musculoskeletal system. In this study, we conducted lactylation omics on rabbit rotator cuff tear samples and identified 2624 modification sites on 851 proteins. We obtained results on subcellular localization, differentially modified proteins and sites, functional pathway enrichment. Basing on MOTIFs, we proposed the "lysine co-lactylation modification effect" concept. Overall, lactylation mainly localized in cytoplasm, mitochondria and nucleus, with its functions enriching in RNA processing, DNA processing and cellular metabolism. Considering that lactylation is widely present and significantly occurs in rotator cuff tears, we aim to identify the key targets through which lactylation exerts its effects and to intervene it, ultimately providing new insights and therapeutic approaches for clinic therapy.
Summary
Keywords
Functional enrichment, Lactate, lactylation, Modification sites, motif, omics
Received
27 January 2026
Accepted
13 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Pan and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Zhenlong Liu
Disclaimer
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