Lack of evidence for oxidative stress in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis fibroblasts

Background: It is conceivable that an early therapeutic intervention in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) would lead to better results in terms of disease progression for these patients. One possible strategy to increase the sensitivity of the diagnosis is represented by the use of biological parameters reflecting, for example, oxidative stress alterations associated with ALS. Such biomarkers would be valuable tools both for a better diagnostic evaluation and for studying the impact of therapeutic interventions on the disease course. A special category of experimental models is represented by peripheral cells obtained directly from patients (ex vivo). Objective: In this study, primary fibroblasts obtained from 10 sporadic ALS (SALS) patients and 10 healthy matched controls were used to investigate a panel of parameters related to the oxidative status. Methods: Reactive oxygen species production, protein carbonylation and nitration, susceptibility to hydrogen peroxide exposure, p38-mitogen-activated protein kinase activation and adenosine triphosphate intracellular content were evaluated. Results: No significant difference was observed in all investigated parameters between patient and control cells, and no correlation with the disease severity was found. Conclusion: Collectively, our data show no major alterations of the oxidative and bioenergetic status in SALS cultured fibroblasts, suggesting that these cells do not represent a useful model to study the oxidative dysfunction associated with SALS.