Study On The Correlation Between Serum Concentration Of Kir4.1Protein And The Degree Of White Matter Lesion

Objective: In recent years,―white matter lesions‖(WMLs) has become the mostfrequently diagnosis of middle-elderly people in MRI report with the progressing ofbiochemical technology, neuroimaging, and especially the popularizing of magneticresonance imaging. MRI of brain commonly shows incidental T2-weighted (T2WI)hyperintensities in the periventricular or subcortical areas. The change of mental statusand cognitive function is the most significant clinical manifestations in patients whohave white matter lesions, namely, they have no aphasia and there are one or severaldefects in them such as memory, visual spatial skills, executive function and emotionalstate. It also can result in dementia, paralysis, blindness, coma and even death in severepatients. Demyelination of central neurons was confirmed as the major character ofleukoencephalopathy which contains multiple sclerosis. Recent evidence suggests thatinwardly rectifying potassium channel4.1(Kir4.1) was identified as targets of anautoantibody response in patients with multiple sclerosis. In order to explore whetherthere is correlation between Kir4.1protein and the common leukoencephalopathy. Weinvestigated in this study the serum concentration of Kir4.1protein inleukoencephalopathy and the relation to the degree of cerebral white matter lesions.This study can also provide theoretical basis for exploring the possibility of serum Kir4.1as neurological biomarkers in the clinical diagnosis and treatment ofleukoencephalopathy.Methods: We collected a total of24cases of dizziness, cognitive or emotionaldysfunction containing men and women who were recruited from neurology departmentof the First and Second Hospital affiliated to Dalian Medical University during Marchto August,2013. All participating patients underwent brain MRI using superconductingmagnet at a field of1.5T on proton density-, T1-, and T2-weighted imaging in axialplanes at5-mm–thick slices. Details of the image interpretation protocols used were thesame as those of the Rotterdam study. Through discrimination the head scanning imageresults of patients,14patients with severe cerebral white matter lesions were selected ascase group, and10patients with no or mild damage as control group. WMLs were ratedseparately for subcortical and periventricular regions and each group contained6and8patients. The clinical data of all patients was in detail. Serum concentration of Kir4.1protein were detected by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), andexperimental data was analyzed by the statistical software.Results:1. Analysis of the clinical data: There were no significant differences ofthe age, number, body mass index were not significantly different between the2groups.And also the mobility of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes2. Analysis of related risk factors: There were no significant differences of thesystolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), heartrate, systolic blood pressure, high density lipoprotein (HDL-c), cholesterol, low densitylipoprotein (LDL-c), and homocysteine (HCY) between the2groups. With regard tolipid metabolism, the concentration of serum triglyceride was higher in theWML-positive group than the WML-negative group (P<0.05). In univariate logisticregression analysis, the risk of WML was associated with duration of triglyceride (OR,1.05;95%CI,0.958-1.151; P=0.297).3. Analysis of Serum Kir4.1Protein: The concentrations of serum Kir4.1proteinwere significantly different between the2groups (P <0.05). The case group were wereseparated for the periventricular and subcortical white matter. The concentrations ofserum Kir4.1protein were significantly different between the subcortical white matterand the control group (P <0.05). The others were no significant differences by Paired-comparisons.Conclusions：1. Elevated levels of Serum triglyceride level was a risk factor ofwhite matter Lesion.2. The Kir4.1concentrations were higher in patients with leukoencephalopathythan in controls, especially in patients with the subcortical white matter lesion.