肌萎缩侧索硬化患者血浆转化生长因子-α水平的变化及其意义

The changes of plasma transforming growth factor-α in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

目的探讨肌萎缩侧索硬化(ALS)患者血浆转化生长因子-α(TGF-α)水平及其临床意义。方法采用MILLIPLEX MAP液相芯片技术检测ALS患者血浆TGF-α水平,针对该指标,进行统计学分析,系统研究ALS患者与正常对照的关系、患者亚组(性别亚组、年龄亚组、病程亚组、起病部位亚组、功能评分亚组)与正常对照之间的关系。结果与正常对照相比,ALS患者血浆TGF-α水平显著升高(P<0.05),各个患者亚组血浆TGF-α水平均显著升高(均P<0.05);病程>12个月患者比病程≤12个月患者的血浆TGF-α水平显著升高(P<0.05),而其它患者亚组之间,血浆TGF-α水平均无统计学差异(均P>0.05);此外,该指标水平变化与病程统计正相关(RRho=0.314,P=0.030)。结论血浆TGF-α在ALS的炎症机制中可能起到促进病情进展的作用,该指标有可能会成为推断疾病进展的潜在生物学标记。本文的相关试探性研究有望为酪氨酸激酶抑制剂等治疗ALS的措施提供更多的理论依据。

Objective To explore the expression level and the changes of plasma transforming growth factor-α（ TGF-α） in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis（ ALS）,and to explore its clinical significance. Methods The level of plasma TGF-α was measured by MILLIPLEX MAP liquid-phase chip. By statistical analysis on this index,the relationship between the ALS patients and the normal controls,and further the relationship between the subgroups of patients（ subgroups of sex,subgroups of age,subgroups of disease duration,subgroups of onset location,subgroups of functional scoring） and the normal controls were systematically investigated. Results Compared with the normal controls,the level of plasma TGF-α was significantly increased in ALS patients（ P 0. 05）,and also was significantly increased in all subgroups of ALS patients（ P 0. 05）. Additionally,the level in ALS patients in the subgroup with disease duration 12 months was increased significantly compared to that in ALS patients in the subgroup with disease duration ≤12 months（ P 0. 05）; however,there was no significant difference between other subgroups（ P 0. 05）. In addition,the change of plasma TGF-α in ALS patients was positively correlated with the disease duration（ RRho = 0. 314,P = 0. 030）. Conclusions Plasma TGF-α may play an important role in promoting the progression of disease in the inflammatory mechanism of ALS,which may be a potential biological marker to infer the progression of the disease. The relevant tentative study in this paper is expected to provide more theoretical basis for tyrosine kinase inhibitors and other measures to treat ALS.