Higher Circulating Levels of Chemokine CCL20 in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: Evaluation of the Influences of Chemokine Gene Polymorphism, Gender, Treatment and Disease Pattern

Chemokines play an important role in the autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of CCL20 and a polymorphism [-786C > T (rs6749704)] in the chemokine gene in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The blood samples were collected from 135 MS patients and 135 healthy subjects as a control group. The patients have relapsing-remitting (RRMS; n = 65), primary progressive (PPMS; n = 47), secondary progressive (SPMS; n = 35) or progressive relapsing (PRMS; n = 14) patterns. The serum levels of CCL20 were measured by ELISA. The DNA was analyzed for CCL20 polymorphism using PCR–RLFP. The mean serum levels of CCL20 in the MS group were significantly higher than in the healthy group (P