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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1348430
This article is part of the Research Topic Neurological Autoimmunity: etiology, infectious complications, treatment strategies and outcomes in antibody-associated syndromes and beyond View all 12 articles

Elevated serum levels of anti-collagen type I antibodies in patients with spontaneous cervical artery dissection and ischemic stroke: A prospective multicenter study

Provisionally accepted
Silke Zimmermann Silke Zimmermann 1Markus Weißenfels Markus Weißenfels 2Norma Krümmer Norma Krümmer 3Wolfgang Härtig Wolfgang Härtig 4Gesa Weise Gesa Weise 5Daniela Branzan Daniela Branzan 6Dominik Michalski Dominik Michalski 7Johann Pelz Johann Pelz 7*
  • 1 Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 2 Department of Neurology, Heinrich-Braun-Klinikum, Zwickau, Germany
  • 3 Department of Neurology, Klinikum Altenburger Land, Altenburg, Germany
  • 4 Paul Flechsig Institute for Neuropathology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 5 Department of Neurology, Sana Kliniken Leipziger Land, Borna, Germany
  • 6 Department of Vascular Surgery, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 7 Department of Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Lower Saxony, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Spontaneous cervical artery dissection (sCAD) is a rare vasculopathy whose trigger is still unknown. We hypothesized that autoimmunity against components of the vascular wall might play a critical role in sCAD, and examined anti-collagen type I antibodies in patients with sCAD, acute ischemic stroke, patients with thromboendarterectomy, and controls. Methods: Fifty-seven patients with sCAD (age 45.7±10.2 years, female 18 (31.6%)) were prospectively enrolled in four German stroke centers. Blood samples were collected at baseline, at day 10±3, and after 6±1 months. Patients with ischemic stroke not related to CAD (n=54, age 56.7±13.7 years, female 15 (27.8%)), healthy probands (n=80, age 57.4±12.9 years, female 56 (70%)), and patients undergoing thromboendarterectomy of the carotid artery (n=9, age 70.7±9.3 years, female 2 (22.2%)) served as controls. Anti-collagen type I antibodies were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Results: Patients with acute sCAD had higher serum levels of anti-collagen type I antibodies (33.9±24.6 µg/ml) than probands (18.5±11.0 µg/ml; p <0.001) but lower levels than patients with ischemic stroke not related to sCAD (47.8±28.4 µg/ml; p=0.003). In patients with sCAD, serum levels of anti-collagen type I antibodies were similar in the acute, subacute, and chronic phase. Levels of anti-collagen type I antibodies significantly correlated with circulating collagen type I (rho=0.207, p=0.003). Conclusion: Anti-collagen type I antibodies seem not to represent a trigger for acute sCAD or ischemic stroke but may rather be linked to the metabolism and turnover of collagen type I.

    Keywords: Autoimmune, spontaneous cervical artery dissection (sCAD), Connective Tissue, anti-collagen type I antibody, vascular autoimmunity

    Received: 02 Dec 2023; Accepted: 06 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zimmermann, Weißenfels, Krümmer, Härtig, Weise, Branzan, Michalski and Pelz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Johann Pelz, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, 04103, Lower Saxony, Germany

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