부산대학교 도서관

CD24 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-linked cell surface glycoprotein expressed in central nervous system cells. Recent investigations have suggested that CD24 participates in the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS). However, a limited number of studies have been published regarding the contribution of CD24 to the risk and severity of MS in humans. We investigated the contribution of a CD24 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) to MS disease risk and severity. We also studied mRNA expression of the CD24 gene in Iranian MS patients using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Our findings showed that the CD24v/v genotype was significantly more frequent in MS patients compared with controls ( pc == .004). Moreover, a statistically significant difference in the Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score (MSSS) was found between MS patients carrying CD24a/a and CD24v/v genotypes ( p == .008). The results also indicated that the expression of CD24 mRNA was 1.7 times more in MS patients compared with controls. In conclusion, our results suggest that the CD24v/v genotype influences both MS disease risk and severity in Iranian MS patients, and the high disease severity in CD24v/v patients may indicate that they require more aggressive treatment than do patients carrying CD24a/a. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]