title: Serum levels of a subset of cytokines show high interindividual variability and are not altered in rats transgenic for Huntington´s disease.
abstract: To evaluate whether cytokines are altered in peripheral blood of rats transgenic for the human Huntington´s disease mutation we investigated serum levels of GRO/KC, IL-1β, IL-13 and TNF-α at a symptomatic stage at 12 months of age. Overall serum levels of these cytokines were not significantly changed between transgenic HD rats and controls. Moreover, we observed a high interindividual variability. Our results indicate that these cytokines will be difficult to pursue as biomarkers in at least this rat model of HD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, University of Tuebingen;  Lund University, Sweden;  Department of Neurology, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53105 Bonn, Germany;  Hannover Medical School and  Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg.
authors.forename: Huu Phuc
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Björkqvist
authors.forename: Felix J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Bode
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stephan
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: von Hörsten