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Increased plasma TGF-beta1 in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
1Department of Neurology, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. houi@jikei.ac.jp
Objectives:
To investigate the levels of transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) in plasma of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Material And Methods:
The TGF-beta1 plasma concentrations were measured with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay from 11 patients with ALS and 13 age matched healthy controls.
Results:
The mean TGF-beta1 plasma concentration in the patients with ALS (2.15 +/- 0.80 ng/ml, mean +/- SD) was significantly higher than in the healthy controls (1.59 +/- 0.32 ng/ml) (P=0.031). There was a significant positive correlation between the TGF-beta1 plasma concentration in the patients with ALS and the duration of illness (r=0.66, P=0.028).
Conclusion:
Our findings provide evidence that in ALS the plasma concentration of TGF-beta1 increases significantly with the duration of illness. These results suggest that TGF-beta1 is involved in the disease process of ALS.