Heidi Danker-Hopfe — Page 2

PubMed2003

Nerve growth factor serum concentrations in healthy human volunteers: physiological variance and stability.

Human nerve growth factor (NGF) serum concentrations were measured in a healthy sample of 126 participants by a modified highly sensitive and specific two-site enzyme immunoassay. The measured NGF concentrations differ considerably from a normal distribution. The median NGF concentration was 19.68 pg/ml with an interquartile range of 11.06-41.74 pg/ml, which means that 50% of the NGF levels are in this range. In our healthy sample, we found no gender differences but a slight age-related decrease of NGF (r=-0.1326, P=0.1560). Moreover intraindividual stability of NGF was examined in ten volunteers, where no significant changes of serum NGF concentrations were detected over 4 weeks. This stability of our repetitive measurements over 4 weeks suggests that this neurotrophin may be an intraindividually solid marker at least in human serum.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Chronic cannabis abuse raises nerve growth factor serum concentrations in drug-naive schizophrenic patients.

Long-term cannabis abuse may increase the risk of schizophrenia. Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a pleiotropic neurotrophic protein that is implicated in development, protection and regeneration of NFG-sensitive neurones. We tested the hypothesis that damage to neuronal cells in schizophrenia is precipitated by the consumption of cannabis and other neurotoxic substances, resulting in raised NGF serum concentrations and a younger age for disease onset. The NGF serum levels of 109 consecutive drug-naive schizophrenic patients were measured and compared with those of healthy controls. The results were correlated with the long-term intake of cannabis and other illegal drugs. Mean (+/- SD) NGF serum levels of 61 control persons (33.1 +/- 31.0 pg/ml) and 76 schizophrenics who did not consume illegal drugs (26.3 +/- 19.5 pg/ml) did not differ significantly. Schizophrenic patients with regular cannabis intake (> 0.5 g on average per day for at least 2 years) had significantly raised NGF serum levels of 412.9 +/- 288.4 pg/ml (n = 21) compared to controls and schizophrenic patients not consuming cannabis (p < 0.001). In schizophrenic patients who abused not only cannabis, but also additional substances, NGF concentrations were as high as 2336.2 +/- 1711.4 pg/ml (n = 12). On average, heavy cannabis consumers suffered their first episode of schizophrenia 3.5 years (n = 21) earlier than schizophrenic patients who abstained from cannabis. These results indicate that cannabis is a possible risk factor for the development of schizophrenia. This might be reflected in the raised NGF-serum concentrations when both schizophrenia and long-term cannabis abuse prevail.

Adolescent↗