Affiliations: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, King
Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | Department of Physiology, Assiut University, Assiut,
Egypt | Department of Neurology, Assiut University, Assiut,
Egypt
Note: [] Correspondence: Dr. Enas A. Hamed, Department of Physiology,
Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, 71526 Assiut, Egypt. Tel.: +2 164
743592; Fax: +2 882 333327; +2 882 332278; E-mail: eah3a2003@yahoo.com
Abstract: Adhesion molecules play a role in leukocyte recruitment during
central nervous system (CNS) inflammation. This study was designed to
investigate the serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of adhesion
molecules in children with bacterial meningitis for better understanding of
their potential role in the pathophysiology of meningitis. Serum and CSF were
collected on admission from 40 children who carried the diagnosis of bacterial
meningitis. For comparison, age and sex matched 20 children with sepsis and 20
normal children were included as diseased and healthy control subjects,
respectively. Endothelial (E) selectin, leukocyte (L) selectin, platelet (P)
selectin, intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell
adhesion molecules-1 (VCAM-1) were measured. CSF/serum of measured parameters
was calculated to estimate ratio. In meningitis, serum soluble (s) sE-selectin,
sL-selectin, sP-selectin, sICAM-1, sVCAM-1 was elevated than controls. Compared
to sepsis, serum sE-selectin, sL-selectin, s-ICAM, sVCAM-1, CSF-sL-selectin,
CSF-sVCAM-1 and sVCAM-1 ratio were elevated while serum sP-selectin was
decreased in meningitis. In meningitis, positive correlation was found between
CSF-protein and CSF-leukocytes, CSF-sICAM-1, CSF-sVCAM-1; between
CSF-sE-selectin and CSF-sICAM-1. This study supports the role for adhesion
molecules especially sL-selectin, sVCAM-1 in the pathophysiology of meningitis
and suggests their use as biomarkers for meningitis. Presence of discrepancy of
CSF/serum ratios for molecules of same molecular weight suggests intrathecal
synthesis in addition to diffusion through the disrupted blood-brain
barrier.
