Inflammatory Markers in Matched Plasma and Cerebrospinal Fluid from Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

It has been suggested that a number of molecules associated with inflammation are involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We measured the levels of α₁-antichymotrypsin (ACT), α₁-antitrypsin (AAT), interleukin-6 (IL-6), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and oxidised low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) in matched cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma of 141 patients with probable AD. We found a significant relationship between CSF and plasma levels of ACT (r = 0.4, p < 0.001), IL-6 (r = 0.74, p < 0.001), MCP-1 (r = 0.71, p < 0.001), and a borderline relationship between CSF and plasma oxLDL (r = 0.22, p < 0.05). In addition, linear regression analysis revealed a positive correlation between levels of CSF-ACT and oxLDL (p < 0.001), but an inverse relation between levels of CSF ACT, CSF AAT and MCP-1 (p < 0.001). A significant correlation was also found between levels of CSF ACT, oxLDL and the ratio of CSF to serum albumin, which is used as a measure of the blood-brain barrier function. Our data extend previous reports regarding the inflammatory markers in the plasma and CSF of patients with AD and provide good evidence that levels of ACT, IL-6, MCP-1 and oxLDL in plasma and CSF might be candidates as biomarkers for monitoring the inflammatory process in AD.

Biological Determinants of and Reference Values for Plasma Interleukin-8, Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1, Epidermal Growth Factor, and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor: Results from the STANISLAS Cohort

“…Our results, obtained by use of a new fully automated biochip analyzer, provide the first available data regarding the highly associated factors and reference intervals for plasma IL-8, MCP-1, EGF, and VEGF concentrations in individuals from a large, apparently healthy cohort. Because these 4 cytokines are involved in numerous diseases related to inflammation, vascular remodeling, or growth regulation (3-6, 12, 14-16 ) and their concentrations in blood have been found to be increased in several diseases (7)(8)(9)17 ), reference intervals for healthy individuals must be determined to provide comparison data for the interpretation of patient laboratory results.…”

Cerebrospinal fluid and blood biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease

“…Several studies reported increased IL-6 levels in the serum and plasma of AD patients, while other studies found no differences [113,114,[119][120][121][122] . Sun et al [123] (2003) found a correlation between IL-6 levels in CSF and serum. Higher mean levels of anti-inflammatory IL-10 in patients with dementia have been detected [124] .…”

Low levels of aluminum can lead to behavioral and morphological changes associated with Alzheimer's disease and age-related neurodegeneration

“…The activated astrocyte count is elevated in AD and this is especially pronounced at the loci of senile plaques (Cullen, 1997). In the hippocampus of AD patients, there is an up-regulation of expression of pro-inflammatory genes (Colangelo et al, 2002), together with elevated concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines in brain (Zhao et al, 2003) and cerebrospinal fluid (Sun et al, 2003).…”