Serum from interferon-β-1b-treated patients with early multiple sclerosis stabilizes the blood-brain barrier in vitro

Marcus Müller, Achim Frese, Isabelle Nassenstein, Maike Hoppen, Martin Marziniak, Erich Bernd Ringelstein, Kwang Sik Kim, Wolf Rüdiger Schäbitz, Jörg Kraus

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Interferon-β (IFN-β) stabilizes the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in vitro. Here we investigated the effect of serum from 15 IFN-β-1b-treated multiple sclerosis (MS) patients on the permeability read-outs of small solutes in an in vitro BBB model consisting of human brain microvascular endothelial cells in co-culture with rat astrocytes. The addition of sera from IFN-β-treated patients resulted in a significantly (p < 0.05) reduced permeability as compared with untreated patients. Our findings show that sera from IFN-β-1b-treated MS patients have a stabilizing effect on the in vitro BBB. We suggest an unknown potentially pro-inflammatory factor in the serum of MS patients that may lead to a BBB dysfunction and can be modulated by IFN-β.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)236-239
Number of pages4
JournalMultiple Sclerosis Journal
Volume18
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • bioassay
  • blood-brain barrier
  • interferon-β
  • multiple sclerosis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neurology
  • Clinical Neurology

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