VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENTATION AND THE GENE EXPRESSION OF T HELPER 1 CELL-RELATED CYTOKINE (IFN-Γ) AND TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR (T-BET) IN PATIENTS WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Background and Aim: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory neurological disorder of the human central nervous system (CNS) which is characterized by by Th1-Th2 cells imbalances, demyelination and consequently irreversible axonal damage. Vitamin A can suppress differentiation of immature CD4+ T cells into Th1 cells and shift the axis towards Th2 production. Methods: Thirty six patients randomly clustered into the intervention group receiving 25,000 IU/day vitamin A and the placebo group for 6 months. The proliferation and gene expression of IFN-γ and T-bet was evaluated in fresh, MOG-stimulated, PHA-stimulated and non-stimulated cells of patients by BrdU and Real Time-PCR respectively. Results: The results demonstrated that the IFN-γ expression in fresh (p=0.002), MOG-Stimulated (p=0.001) and non-stimulated (p=0001) had a noticeable reduction in the group receiving vitamin A. On the other hand, the gene expression of T-bet only in fresh and non-treated cells had a remarkable decrease in vitamin A-intake group (p=0.0001). Regarding PHA-treated cells, in contrast to T-bet expression which had a significant change in intervention group (p=0.007), the gene expression of IFN-γ did not decrease (p=0.485).Conclusion: Present study revealed that vitamin A supplementation reduced the gene expression of T-bet and IFN-γ in fresh, MOG-stimulated and non-stimulated cells in MS whether in PHA-treated cells, adverse other cells, the these genes were up regulated in placebo and intervention groups.

کلیدواژه ها:

Multiple sclerosis ، T-bet ، IFN-γ ، Vitamin A ، Gene expression