Neuronal apoptosis induced by cerebrospinal fluid from multiple sclerosis patients correlates with hypointense lesions on T1 magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract Neuronal damage seems to be a major source of disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and at present magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a sensitive method to evaluate lesion and disease activity. We studied the potential correlation between changes in MS patients' disability after relapse, the degree of T1 lesion hypointensity on MRI in vivo and neuronal apoptosis induced by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) on neuron cultures. In this study, we included 24 MS patients with relapsing disease. Clinical recovery from relapse was measured by the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). T1-weighted MRI studies were done according to established standards and neuronal apoptosis was induced by treatment of neuronal cultures with CSF from patients while relapsing. Recovery after relapse is inversely correlated with neuronal apoptosis ( r =−0.725, p r =0.656, p =0.0005) and such hypointensity correlated strongly with neuronal apoptosis ( r =−0.779, p