Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Evidence for intact hepatocyte growth factor/MET signalling axisShow others and affiliations
2001 (English)In: Cytokine, ISSN 1043-4666, E-ISSN 1096-0023, Vol. 15, no 6, p. 315-319Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a secreted cytokine which is expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) together with its specific receptor MET. Since HGF exerts strong neurotrophic activity including motoneurons, we have further analysed whether the HGF/MET axis is defective in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Intrathecal HGF-secretion was measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and in controls without neurological diseases using a specific sandwich immunoassay (ELISA). MET-expression was analysed by immunohistology in spinal cord cross-sections of ALS patients and unaffected controls. The HGF concentrations in CSF were moderately but significantly increased in ALS patients compared to healthy controls (580 pg/ml vs 348 pg/ml). MET-protein was detectable in spinal cord motoneurons of patients with ALS as well as unaffected controls. The data demonstrate that ALS does not show a lack of the trophic signalling axis, HGF/MET, suggesting that the signalling system itself is not affected. The moderate increase in HGF-secretion may represent a compensatory effect.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
W B SAUNDERS CO , 2001. Vol. 15, no 6, p. 315-319
Keywords [en]
ALS, cerebrospinal fluid, Hepatocyte growth factor, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, motoneuron
National Category
Neurosciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-168002DOI: 10.1006/cyto.2001.0941ISI: 000171955500004PubMedID: 11594798Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-0035929685OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-168002DiVA, id: diva2:1457451
2020-08-112020-08-112021-06-11Bibliographically approved