Nov. 27, 2012 10:17 AM
NIH researchers find that fibrinogen appears to be "the trigger" which begins neurodegeneration in MS.
Researchers are honing in on fibrinogen as a mediator in vascular disease, and they are also finding a link in MS.
Fibrinogen is always present in the blood. The normal range is 200 - 400 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL).
Fibrinogen is a protein which is made in our livers. It's the signaling protein for fibrin, which allows our blood to clot. When people develop venous ulcers on their legs, due to chronic venous insufficiency, it's fibrinogen that leaks from the veins and creates a build up of fibrin, depleting the tissue of oxygen and allowing those hallmark ulcers to form. This is called a "fibrin cuff." It's fibrinogen which initiates the coagulation cascade and causes our blood to thicken, as a response to low oxygen levels.
Dr. Zamboni was the first to suggest that MS lesions looked a lot like venous ulcers because of the fibrin cuffs found in both sites of injury.
And researchers have noted that fibin deposition comes FIRST, before demyelination.
Here is some recent research on this connection:
Compromised vasculature in the nervous tissue is a pathogenic manifestation apparent in traumatic injuries, such as spinal cord, optic nerve, and sciatic nerve injury, as well as in central nervous system (CNS) diseases with autoimmune characteristics, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) (7).
Blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption precedes clinical symptoms in MS patients (8), and fibrin is deposited in the lesions (9, 10), apparently before cerebral tissue injury and demyelination (11). Fibrin deposition also coincides with areas of demyelination (12), as well as with areas of axonal damage.
