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Meta-Analysis
. 2017 Aug 22;7(1):9094.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-09097-1.

Increased peripheral blood inflammatory cytokine levels in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a meta-analysis study

Yang Hu  1 , Chang Cao  1 , Xiao-Yan Qin  1 , Yun Yu  1 , Jing Yuan  1 , Yu Zhao  1 , Yong Cheng  2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Increased peripheral blood inflammatory cytokine levels in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a meta-analysis study

Yang Hu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with poorly understood etiology. Increasing evidence suggest that inflammation may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of ALS. Several studies have demonstrated altered levels of blood cytokines in ALS, but results were inconsistent. Therefore, we did a systematic review of studies comparing blood inflammatory cytokines between ALS patients and control subjects, and quantitatively combined the clinical data with a meta-analysis. The systematic review of Pubmed and Web of Science identified 25 studies encompassing 812 ALS patients and 639 control subjects. Random-effects meta-analysis demonstrated that blood tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF; Hedges' g = 0.655; p = 0.001), TNF receptor 1 (Hedges' g = 0.741; p < 0.001), interleukin 6 (IL-6; Hedges' g = 0.25; p = 0.005), IL-1β (Hedges' g = 0.296; p = 0.038), IL-8 (Hedges' g = 0.449; p < 0.001) and vascular endothelial growth factor (Hedges' g = 0.891; p = 0.003) levels were significantly elevated in patients with ALS compared with control subjects. These results substantially enhance our knowledge of the inflammatory response in ALS, and peripheral blood inflammatory cytokines may be used as diagnostic biomarkers for ALS in the future.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flowchart of the literature search.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Studies of peripheral blood TNF-α and TNFR1. Forest plot displaying random effects meta-analysis results of the association between TNF- α (A), TNFR1 (B) and ALS. The sizes of the squares are proportional to study weights.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Studies of peripheral blood IL-1β and IL-6. Forest plot displaying random effects meta-analysis results of the association between IL-1β (A), IL-6 (B) and ALS. The sizes of the squares are proportional to study weights.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Studies of peripheral blood IL-8 and VEGF. Forest plot displaying random effects meta-analysis results of the association between IL-8 (A), VEGF (B) and ALS. The sizes of the squares are proportional to study weights.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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