Mediators of Inflammation
Volume 2009 (2009), Article ID 132464, 4 pages
doi:10.1155/2009/132464
Clinical Study

Serum Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 and Nitric Oxide Levels in Parkinson's Disease

Deniz Tuncel,1 Fatma Inanc Tolun,2 and Ismail Toru2

1Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, 46050 Kahramanmaras, Turkey
2Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, 46050 Kahramanmaras, Turkey

Received 12 May 2008; Revised 19 October 2008; Accepted 5 January 2009

Academic Editor: Jan van Amsterdam

Copyright © 2009 Deniz Tuncel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of circulating growth hormone (GH), insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1), IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), and nitric oxide (NO) concentrations in the patients suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD). The study groups were consisted of 25 patients with PD and 25 matched healthy subjects as a control. The NO level of patients in PD group (2.3±0.4 μmol/L) was significantly lower than that in the control group (2.8±0.6 μmol/L) (P:.011). Although there were no statistically significant differences in the GH, IGF-1, and IGF BP-3 levels among the two groups, in this preliminary study, we found low NO and mildly elevated IGF-1 levels in the patients with PD. The results may be associated with adaptation or protective mechanisms in the neurodegenerative disease processes such as seen in the PD. Further studies should be carried out to confirm our results.