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Serum level measurement of progranulin in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

Niloufar NorouziNasr1, Faezeh Azadani2, Mahsa ParsaHa3, Sara Khalig4, Farnaz Hajizadeh


 1Department of Pharmacy, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, India; 2Medical Student, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran;  3Isfahan Research Center of Multiple Sclerosis, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran; 4School of Medicine, Islamic Azad University of Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran; 5Postdoc Associate, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, United States


Address correspondence to: Niloufar NorouziNasr, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01655, United States. Tel: +1 857 269-0120; E-mail: farnaz.khalignejad@gmail.com

Abstract

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) with unknown etiology and variable clinical evolution. Although the role of serum progranulin levels in the pathogenesis of MS remains unclear, it is well known that progranulin is involved in several physiological and patho physiological process of CNS including modulation of neurite outgrowth, neuronal differentiation, and neuronal sur vival. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to measure serum levels of progranulin in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) in comparison with healthy control subjects. Methods: In a case-control study, plasma was collected from healthy controls (n = 37) and also patients with RRMS (n = 115) and NMO (n = 33). Serum level measurement of progranulin was performed using a sandwich ELISA method. Results: The serum levels of progranulin were 65.07 ± 11.64, 56.81 ± 10.34, and 47.73 ± 10.37 in NMO and MS patients and healthy controls, respectively, showing a statistically significant difference between them (P = 0.00). Furthermore, we found a positive correlation between serum levels of progranulin and EDSS of patients (r = 0.79 and P = 0.00). Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that progranulin is up-regulated in MS patients and our f indings strengthen the evidence for progranulin being involved in the pathogenesis of MS. However, further studies will be required to establish progranulin as an important marker for MS.

Keywords: Multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica, progranulin, ELISA, inflammation

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