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Interferon β therapy increases serum ferritin levels in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosisDepartamento de Bioquimica, Faculdade de Ciencias Médicas, Lisbon, Portugal; Service de Neurologia, Hospital dos Capuchos, Lisboa, Portugal, armando.sena{at}fcm.unl.pt
Service de Neurologia, Hospital dos Capuchos, Lisboa, Portugal
Departmento de Fisiologia, Cooperative Egas Moniz, Monte da Caparica, Portugal
Departamento de Bioquimica, Faculdade de Ciencias Médicas, Lisbon, Portugal
Service de Neurologia, Hospital dos Capuchos, Lisboa, Portugal
Service de Neurologia, Hospital dos Capuchos, Lisboa, Portugal
Laboratoire de Biochimie, Hôpital Trousseau AP-HP, Paris, France Serum ferritin levels have been found to be increased in patients with active progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). However, its levels are reported to be unchanged in stable and in active relapsing-remitting (RR) form of the disease. No research to date has assessed the influence of interferon β (IFN-β) on ferritin concentrations. In this study, serum ferritin levels were measured in 43 individuals with RR-MS and 38 age- and sex-matched control volunteers. There were no significant differences between controls and patients under stable and untreated conditions. In patients at 12 months after the beginning of IFN-β therapy, ferritin levels were higher in women and in men, in comparison with baseline (71.4 ± 58.6 vs 43.4 ± 29.9 ng/mL, P = 0.0006 and 216.0 ± 124.3 vs 127.8 ± 74.9 ng/mL, P = 0.0022, respectively). These results suggest that larger prospective studies are required to evaluate the role of serum ferritin in MS and its potential usefulness in monitoring responses to immunomodulatory therapies.
Key Words: multiple sclerosis ferritin iron metabolism interferon beta
This version was published on July
1, 2008 Multiple Sclerosis, Vol. 14, No. 6,
857-859 (2008) |
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