Plasma levels of BDNF and EGF are reduced in acute stroke patients
Linda Thøring Øverberg,
Elise Fritsch Lugg,
Mona Gaarder,
Birgitta Langhammer,
Bente Thommessen,
Ole Morten Rønning,
Cecilie Morland
Affiliations
Linda Thøring Øverberg
Department of Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, OsloMet−Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway; Section for Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Department of Pharmacy, The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Elise Fritsch Lugg
Section for Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Department of Pharmacy, The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Mona Gaarder
Section for Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Department of Pharmacy, The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Birgitta Langhammer
Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, OsloMet−Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway; Research Department, Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital, Nesoddtangen, Norway
Bente Thommessen
Department of Neurology, Division of Medicine, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway
Ole Morten Rønning
Department of Neurology, Division of Medicine, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway; Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Cecilie Morland
Department of Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, OsloMet−Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway; Section for Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Department of Pharmacy, The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Corresponding author.
Stroke affects almost 14 million people worldwide each year. It is the second leading cause of death and a major cause of acquired disability. The degree of initial impairment in cognitive and motor functions greatly affects the recovery, but idiosyncratic factors also contribute. These are largely unidentified, which contributes to making accurate prediction of recovery challenging. Release of soluble regulators of neurotoxicity, neuroprotection and repair are presumably essential. Here we measured plasma levels of known regulators of neuroprotection and repair in patients with mild acute ischemic stroke and compared them to the plasma levels in healthy age and gender matched controls. We found that the levels of BDNF and EGF were substantially lower in stroke patients than in healthy controls, while the levels of bFGF and irisin did not differ between the groups. The lower levels of growth factors highlight that during the acute phase of stroke, there is a mismatch between the need for neuroprotection and repair, and the brain's ability to induce these processes. Large individual differences in growth factor levels were seen among the stroke patients, but whether these can be used as predictors of long-term prognosis remains to be investigated.
