Objective: To assess the relationship iron and inflammatory markers in an in vivo and post mortem study of Parkinson´s disease subjects.

Background: Although neuroinflammation and iron accumulation a shown to be characteristic features of Parkinson’s disease (PD) pathology, the relationship between them is yet to be ascertained. In the present study, we aimed to investigate iron and inflammatory markers by analysing plasmatic and neuroimaging parameters in an in vivo study. In addition, we assessed the relationship between microgliosis and iron deposition in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) in post mortem data.

Method: Twenty-five early stage PD subjects and 18 healthy controls underwent an extensive systemic study including iron metabolism (iron, ferritin) and inflammation (IL6, TNF-alpha, hepcidin) parameters along with T2* MRI of deep grey matter nuclei including SNc and basal ganglia. The post mortem study includes formalin-fixed paraffin wax embedded brain sections obtained from seven control individuals and twenty subjects from the Parkinson’s UK Tissue Bank Imperial College; 10 were assigned Braak stage III-IV and the other 10 Braak score V-VI. We assessed the systemic and brain relationship of iron and inflammatory markers with clinical measures of PD in the in vivo study as well as the associations between nigral microgliosis and iron deposition in the post mortem study.

Results: PD subjects showed systemic ferritin associated with a variety of inflammatory plasmatic markers, i.e. hepcidin and IL-6, as well as clinical parkinsonian scales (Hoehn and Yahr and disease duration, levodopa regime). Although iron accumulation did not differ between control and PD group, ferritin ratios correlated with disease duration and burden in PD. Post-mortem analysis of the parkinsonian SNc, divided according to Braak and Braak scores, exhibited microgliosis and increased iron accumulation when compared to controls. In addition, the degree of microgliosis correlated with the intensity of nigral iron staining.

Conclusion: Markers of inflammation and iron metabolism in both systemic and brain systems show a close interplay in PD, thus offering a potential biomarker for monitoring clinical progression of the disease as well as prospective therapeutic targets.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-interaction-between-iron-metabolism-and-inflammation-in-parkinsons-disease-an-in-vivo-and-post-mortem-study/