Endogenous granulocyte colony-stimulating factor: a biomarker in acute ischemic stroke

Abstract

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) may protect ischemic brain injury either in animal or human. No studies have reported that endogenous G-CSF (enG-CSF) level is related to the severity of ischemic stroke. This study was designed to assess the severity of ischemic patients correlated with the alteration of enG-CSF on the 1st day after an ischemic event. Patient’s plasma enG-CSF and scoring of National Institute of Health Stroke Scale were measured on the 1st day after ischemic stroke. The acute ischemic stroke could significantly induce enG-GCF secretion as compared with healthy control group (16.77 vs. 22.86 μg/L, p = 0.001). Elevated enG-CSF concentration was positively correlated with the severity of stroke patients on day 1 after the event (p = 0.006; Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.268). The enG-CSF is a good biomarker for prediction of severity of acute ischemic stroke.

Keywords::

• Ischemia
• neuroprotective agents
• stroke recovery
• endogenous granulocyte colony-stimulating factor
• biomarker

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank ML Lee and ZL Huang for patients follow-up and blood sample correction.

Declaration of interest

This study was supported by grants NSC 97-2314-B-371-003-MY2 from the National Science Council of the Republic of China and 97-CCH-ICO-21-2 from Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.