Progesterone (PROG) and Cortisol (CORT) levels in plasma of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Correlation with prognostic factors and survival

GONZALEZ DENISELLE MC; GARGIULO MONACHELLI, G.M; RODRÍGUEZ, G.E; MEYER M; GARAY L; DE NICOLA A. F.; SICA REP

Chicago, USA

Congreso; 39th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience; 2009

Society for Neuroscience

INTRODUCTION: ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease. Poor prognostic factors described are: 1) older age, 2) shorter time onset to diagnosis and 3) bulbar onset. PROG demonstrated antioxidant and neuroprotective properties in animal models of ALS. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess plasma levels of PROG and CORT in ALS patients and healthy controls (HC), and to correlate these levels with prognostic factors and survival. METHODOLOGY: We selected 27 definite or probable ALS patients and 21 gender and age matched HC and determined PROG and CORT plasma levels by radioimmunoassay (RIA). We analyzed results according to age and gender with Two-way ANOVA. Spearman Correlation and Linear Regression tests were analyzed between hormonal levels and prognostic factors-survival. RESULTS: We studied 11 women and 16 men in the ALS group and 11/10 in the HC group. Women selected for the PROG assay were postmenopausal (11 ALS, 7 HC). Plasma levels of PROG were significantly higher in ALS vs HC (p=0.04) and in men vs women for both ALS and HC (p=0.002). PROG correlated negatively with age (Spearman Rho R=-0.57, p=0.002) with a low grade association (R2 0.18); positively with survival (R=0.5, p=0.01) and borderline positive with time to diagnosis (R=0.35, p=0.06). CORT levels were also increased in ALS vs HC (p=0.04), although no correlation was found with age, months of survival or time to diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Plasma levels of PROG and CORT were higher in ALS than in HC. PROG decreased with age in both ALS and HC, and in the latter correlated positively with survival and time to diagnosis. CORT did not demonstrate any relationship with these parameters.