Gremlin-1 in Ischemic Stroke

Abstract

Objective: Obesity is known to be one of the major risk factors for ischemic stroke. Unexpectedly, there are some studies showing better outcomes in obese stroke patients. Gremlin–1, a protein that inhibits adipogenesis and activates angiogenesis, may be the real biomarker of interest to identify this dilemma. This study was the first to investigate serum Gremlin–1 levels in ischemic stroke patients. Method: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, patients diagnosed with ischemic stroke by a specialist neurologist and healthy participants as the control group were included. Serum Gremlin–1 levels were measured by the ELISA method and compared statistically. Results: A total of 87 participants, 49 ischemic stroke patients and 38 controls, were included in the study. The mean age of the stroke patients was 72.1 ± 13.0 years, while the mean age of the control group was 56.9 ± 15.1 years and there was a statistical difference (p<0.001). Stroke patients were mostly female (n=27; 55.1%), while the control group was mostly male (n=21; 55.3%), but not statistically different (p=0.338). Serum Gremlin–1 levels were 0.672 ± 0.461 ng/mL in stroke patients and 0.762 ± 0.561 ng/mL in the control group. No significant difference was found when compared statistically (p=0.590). Conclusion: Our study is the first to have a look at Gremlin–1 levels in ischemic stroke patients. Gremlin–1 levels were lower in stroke patients, but no significance was found. Further studies are needed in large study groups with time-dependent changes in Gremlin–1 levels.

Keywords

• biomarker
• Gremlin-1
• ischemic stroke

References

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