title: An antibody microarray analysis of serum cytokines in neurodegenerative Parkinsonian syndromes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Microarray technology may offer a new opportunity to gain insight into disease-specific global protein expression profiles. The present study was performed to apply a serum antibody microarray to screen for differentially regulated cytokines in Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple system atrophy (MSA), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal syndrome (CBS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum samples were obtained from patients with clinical diagnoses of PD (n = 117), MSA (n = 31) and PSP/CBS (n = 38) and 99 controls. Cytokine profiles of sera from patients and controls were analyzed with a semiquantitative human antibody array for 174 cytokines and the expression of 12 cytokines was found to be significantly altered. In a next step, results from the microarray experiment were individually validated by different immunoassays. Immunoassay validation confirmed a significant increase of median PDGF-BB levels in patients with PSP/CBS, MSA and PD and a decrease of median prolactin levels in PD. However, neither PDGF-BB nor prolactin were specific biomarkers to discriminate PSP/CBS, MSA, PD and controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our unbiased cytokine array based screening approach and validation by a different immunoassay only two of 174 cytokines were significantly altered between patients and controls.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mahlknecht
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stemberger
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Fabienne
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sprenger
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Pathophysiology, Biocenter, Innsbruck Medical University, and Tyrolean Cancer Research Institute, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rainer
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hametner
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine I, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kirchmair
authors.affiliation: Central Institute for Blood Transfusion and Division for Immunology, University Hospital Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grabmer
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scherfler
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Gregor K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Wenning
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Seppi
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Poewe
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reindl