Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage induces the expression of Pentraxin3 in patients

Aneurismal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is an extremely severe illness associated with a high mortality rate and permanent severe neurological dysfunction in two-thirds of all affected patients. One of the major complications of SAH is vasospasm-associated cerebral ischemia. Clinical and experimental data suggest that vasospasm is linked to the inflammatory response associated with SAH. The goal of this study was to investigate the expression of Pentraxin3 (PTX3), a prototypic long pentraxin protein induced by proinflammatory signals in the brain, in SAH patients to test the hypothesis that SAH is followed by an upregulation of PTX3, and establish a temporal relationship between the expression of PTX3 and the induction of vasospasm. We also attempted to establish that PTX3 is detectable in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).