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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Measuring the levels of tiny particles in the blood may help evaluate the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers in Florida report.
MS causes the immune system to attack the body's own nerve cells because it sees them as ``foreign,'' causing changes in vision, muscle weakness and other symptoms. The disease may progress steadily, or sudden attacks may be followed by a temporary remission of symptoms.
Previous research has shown that MS affects the endothelium--the layer of cells lining blood vessels. The disease may progress as the function of the endothelium worsens. Directly measuring the extent of damage to this layer of cells has been difficult, however.
Now, a team of researchers led by Drs. Alireza Minagar and Wenche Jy of the University of Miami report that the level of a certain particle in the blood appears to be a good marker of endothelial damage and progression of MS.
``Measurement of endothelial microparticles may be a useful and easy marker to monitor disease activity in MS,'' Minagar told Reuters Health. ``More work on more MS patients needs to be done to establish our method as a standard tool.''
The researchers measured levels of endothelial microparticles (EMPs) in the blood plasma of 50 MS patients, including 20 patients whose disease was in remission. They also measured EMP in a comparison group of 48 healthy people who did not have MS.
The level of EMPs was nearly three times higher in patients with active MS than in the healthy patients, the authors report in the May issue of the journal Neurology. But in MS patients whose symptoms were in remission, the level of EMPs was actually lower than in the healthy patients.
``These microparticles carry certain markers on them that can help us study the movement of inflammatory cells from blood to the brain,'' Minagar told Reuters Health. Measuring these particles may help doctors monitor MS activity in the future, the Miami researcher said. The measurements eventually may be used in combination with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is already used to keep track of MS, the report indicates.
But the research may lead to more than better monitoring of the disease, according to Minagar.
``If we can develop a new agent or medication that can block the activity of the markers on the microparticles, we may be able to block the migration of the inflammatory cells to the brain and potentially stop the inflammatory cascade,'' Minagar said.
SOURCE: Neurology 2001;56:1319-1324.
