title: Increased serum and cerebrospinal fluid FGF-2 levels in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
abstract: Lack of growth factors and hypoxia are two recent hypotheses about mechanisms underlying motor neuron death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. With this background, serum from 15 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and 15 controls, and CSF from 15 patients and 10 controls were analysed for fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) using an immunoassay. Serum FGF-2 levels were higher in the patient group than in the control group. FGF-2 was detected in CSF in 11/15 patients, but in none of the 10 control subjects. There were no correlations between age, duration of disease or clinical rating and FGF-2 levels. The findings indicate that FGF-2 is involved in the pathophysiological chain of events in this disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. anders.johansson@neurologi.uu.se
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.forename: Ingela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nygren
authors.forename: Kaj
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Blennow
authors.forename: Håkan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Askmark
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 / Q000097:blood* / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2