Decreased Plasma BDNF Level In Pulmonary Arterial Hypertensive Patients With Or Without Depression

Background: Brain-derived neurotropic factor(BDNF), is a neurotrophin that plays a pivotal role in regulating neuronal function throughout life, and this factor is regarded as a potential biomarker of mental disorders. However, previous studies have suggested that plasma BDNF levels were lower in pulmonary arterial hypertension but their functional role is incompletely understood. The aims of this study are to determine plasma BDNF in PAH patients along with and without depression and also to correlate them with clinical and biological data with their impact of survival.Methods and Results: In this study, we obtained plasma samples from healthy controls and patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension(PAH). BDNF levels in plasma were measured by ELISA method. In healthy adults(n=90), the plasma BDNF levels were 2.66(1.08-4.28) ng/mL whereas total PAH patients were 143 out of which IPAH(n=88) and APAH(n=55)are the subgroups. The plasma BDNF levels of PAH patients were 1.29(0.63-2.00) and the subgroups of PAH that is IPAH and APAH were 1.66(1.14-2.13) and0.75(0.38-1.15) respectively.. To determine their relationships between plasma BDNF concentration of healthy controls and PAH group were significantly decreased along with their sub groups and P <0.001. At baseline, 37.06% of subjects had symptoms suggestive of major depressive disorder(MDD) among them 56.6% IPAH and 43.4 % APAH respectively.Conclusion: Plasma BDNF levels of PAH were significantly decreased in compared with healthy controls and previously there was no any particularly documented results had been recorded. Moreover, IPAH with depression has higher mortality.