Increased cerebrospinal fluid Fas (Apo-1) levels in Alzheimer's disease - Relationship with IL-6 concentrations

Increasing lines of evidence suggest a role of apoptosis in the neurodegene ration associated with Alzheimer's disease, in which it has been implicated in increasing the expression of p53 and Fas. On the other hand, inflammato ry cytokines have also been implicated as important factors in the progress ion of neuronal damage in this disease. In an attempt to investigate the po ssible in vivo relationship between programmed cell death and the inflammat ory response in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), we meas ured the levels of soluble Fas, interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) and IL-6 in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from ten DAT patients and ten age-matched control s. Our results show a significant increase in IL-6 and soluble Fas concentr ations in the CSF of DAT patients compared with those from nondemented cont rols. Moreover, linear regression analysis demonstrated a significant corre lation (r=0.703; P<0.05) between soluble Fas and IL-6 levels in the CSF in DAT patients. These results suggest that Fas is implicated in the inflammat ory response observed in Alzheimer's brains. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.