T cell subset composition differs between blood and cerebrospinal fluid in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Abstract

Inflammation is a hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and is often assessed through biological samples. Due to the easier access, peripheral blood is more commonly phenotyped instead of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or affected tissues in ALS. Here, using flow cytometry, we compared the composition of T cell subsets in blood and CSF in ALS patients. We found consistent but weak correlations between blood and CSF for all T cell subsets examined. This finding implies that blood and CSF offer complementary information when characterizing T cell immunity in ALS and blood may not be used as a surrogate for CSF.

Keywords: Adaptive immunity; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Epidemiology; Longitudinal correlation analysis; Neurodegenerative disease; Statistical analysis; T cell responses.