title: Levels of serum granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in patients with cerebrovascular diseases.
abstract: The role of leukocytes in the pathogenesis of cerebrovascular disease, in particular, cerebral ischemic disease has recently become a focus of research. Several studies have reported that a positive correlation between increased functional activities of neutrophils and the risk of cerebral ischemic disease. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is known to be not only a granulocyte proliferating factor but also a potent activator of mature neutrophils. In this study, we measured the serum G-CSF levels in 143 patients with cerebrovascular diseases and in 100 patients with other diseases, using our established enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for G-CSF The minimal detection level was 20 pg/ml G-CSF. In patients with cerebral infarction, G-CSF could be detected in 18.3% and in patients with cerebral hemorrhage, it could be detected in 9.8% of analyzed samples. On the other hand, 6% of the patients with other diseases had measurable levels of G-CSF. The differences among these three groups were statistically significant according to the chi 2 test (p < 0.01). Our findings that there was a significantly high frequency of elevated levels of G-CSF among patients with cerebrovascular diseases, may indicate that the action of G-CSF as a potent activator of neutrophils plays some role in the occurrence of cerebrovascular disease, in particular, cerebral infarction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Fukuoka Dental College, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohhara
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimoda
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Umei
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shirai
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Itoh
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kuwahara
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Niho
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000097:blood*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D016179:Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D016179:Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor