We performed proteomic differential display analysis of human malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) cell lines and a human pleural mesothelial cell line by using 2-DE and LC-MS/MS. The human MPM cell lines were NCI-H28, NCI-H2052 and NCI-H2452, and the human pleural mesothelial cell line was MeT-5A. Between MeT-5A and NCI-H2052, we found 38 protein spots whose expression levels were different, from the results of 2-DE; 28 protein spots appeared higher, and 10 other protein spots lower in NCI-H2052 than in MeT-5A. These spots were analyzed by LC-MS/MS analysis and identified by a peptide sequence tag. However, from the results of 2-DE of the other cell lines, there was only one consistently upregulated protein, astrocytic phosphoprotein PEA-15, in all three MPM cell lines. Western blotting using specific antibodies against PEA-15 confirmed the elevated expression level of PEA-15 in all three MPM cell lines compared with MeT-5A cells and normal pleura tissues from patients. PEA-15 was knocked down in NCI-H2052 cells, and the proliferation of PEA-15-silenced NCI-H2052 cells was suppressed 7-15% compared with negative control cells. These results suggest that PEA-15 expression is likely to be associated with the tumorigenesis of MPM.