Cerebrospinal fluid selenium and chromium levels in patients with Parkinson's disease

Abstract

We compared CSF and serum levels of selenium and chromium, measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry, in 28 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 43 matched controls. The CSF and serum levels of these trace metals did not differ significantly between PD patients and controls. CSF selenium and chromium levels were not correlated with age, age at onset, duration of the disease, scores of the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale of the Hoehn and Yahr staging in the PD group. Although antiparkinsonian therapy did not influence significantly the CSF levels of selenium, PD patients not treated with levodopa had significantly higher CSF selenium levels than controls (p < 0.01). It is possible that increased CSF selenium levels could indicate an attempt of protection against oxidative stress. The normality of CSF and serum chromium levels suggest that these values are not related with the risk for PD.

Minor and Trace Elements in Cerebrospinal Fluid of Parkinson's Patients – Suggestions After a Critical Review of the Analytical Data

“…In the case of patients, the differences among the groups enrolled in the diverse studies are amplified by some clinical variables, as duration and severity of the disease along with medical treatments and possible comorbidities. Regarding duration and severity of the disease, in the trial by Aguilar et al (1998) Se and Cr levels showed no correlation with age at onset and duration of the illness. On the other hand, Alimonti et al (2007b) detected in patients a negative association of Cr amount and severity and duration of the illness; in the same study, Pb appeared to be negatively related to the severity of the disorder, while Sn resulted to be negatively associated with the duration of the disease.…”

“…In the reviewed papers, only a few teams give full details of the selection criteria used. The researchers of the Italian Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Bocca, Forte, Alimonti and coworkers, along with the Spanish scientists (Jiménez-Jiménez et al 1998 andAguilar et al 1998) are among the few authors who describe extensively the criteria employed. The diseases affecting the individuals recruited as patients or controls are often not precisely described, mainly in the less recent works.…”

“…Concerning medical treatments, the therapies followed by patients are described by Campanella et al (1973) and Takahashi et al (1994). Aguilar et al (1998) carried out studies about the influence of antiparkinsonian treatment with various drugs on Se and Cr levels; in the entire group of PD patients, Se showed a non significant increase compared to controls, but the elevation attained the significance when only patients not treated with levodopa were considered. This interesting observation is just recorded in the article text.…”

“…All authors who studied CSF and published element concentration values also for patients reported the mean age of each subject group; Gazzaniga et al (1992) specified also the age range. Regarding element changes with age, Aguilar et al (1998) found that Se and Cr levels were not correlated with the age of PD patients. Bocca et al (2006) found no Zn changes in patients (no data given); in controls, they observed a significant Zn increment in subjects elder than 70 years in comparison with younger individuals, but these differences disappeared in patients.…”

“…5 - Forte et al (2004) and Alimonti et al (2007b) observed in PD a slight diminution, which in the trials by Jiménez-Jiménez et al (1998) and Qureshi et al (2005 and attained the significance. Aguilar et al (1998) found for PD subjects a non significant selenium increment -see Tab. 7; a significant elevation resulted instead in all the patients, with both positive and negative response to the therapy, enrolled by Qureshi et al (2006).…”