N-CAM in cerebrospinal fluid: a marker of synaptic remodelling after acute phases of multiple sclerosis?

We made a longitudinal study of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM) content of 20 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in an acute phase, and 10 in a non-acute phase. Both groups were compared with a control group of 23 subjects without neurological diseases. All MS patients were subjected to two or three lumbar punctures for collection of CSF samples, once a week. N-CAM analysis was performed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Comparison of N-CAM concentrations of the first CSF samples from each MS group with the control group values showed statistically different (lower) levels in the non-acute phase MS patients. Furthermore, a statistically significant increase of CSF N-CAM emerged from a comparison of the values of the first, second, and third samples of the acute phase MS patients group. This increase paralleled the patients' clinical improvement.