Gender effects on plasma PGRN levels in patients with Alzheimer's disease: a preliminary study.

Abstract . Plasma progranulin (PGRN) levels constitute a potentially invaluable biomarker for neurodegenerative diseasesincluding frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and, perhaps, Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We assessed plasma PGRN levelsin 107 AD patients, 36 FTLD patients, and 107 controls. We found that, in female AD patients, there is a positive correlationbetween PGRN levels and age. Although no significant differences were found between patients and controls, we observedhigher levels in females compared to males; in AD patients, a positive correlation between PGRN levels and age was observedin females. In conclusion, our data suggest that PGRN may not be a good biomarker for AD; moreover, gender may influencethe plasma PGRN levels of AD patients.Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, gender, plasma, progranulin INTRODUCTION The neurobiology of progranulin (PGRN) has sug-gested that this protein may act as a neuroprotectiveagent against hypoxic/anoxic insults in the brain [1]and in neuroinflammation [2]. Moreover, PGRN hasbeen found to influence the sexual differentiation ofthe brain; thus, in neonatal male mouse, androgen-dependent upregulation of PGRN expression in thehypothalamus is associated with its sexual differen-tiation [3].