Tetranectin is a potential biomarker in cerebrospinal fluid and serum of patients with epilepsy.

Background: Tetranectin (TN) is a plasminogen kringle 4 binding protein and regulates fibrinolysis and proteolytic processes via binding to plasminogen. A previous proteomics study identified TN in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of epileptic patients but not in healthy controls. We determined the concentrations of TN in CSF and serum of epileptic patients to evaluate the changes in TN levels after epileptic attack.

Methods: We detected TN in the CSF and serum of 64 epileptic patients and 26 healthy subjects using sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.

Results: Compared with the control group, CSF-TN levels increased in epileptic patients while serum-TN levels decreased. These differences were statistically significant. The decrease of serum-TN in patients with drug-refractory epilepsy was the most striking.

Conclusion: CSF-TN and serum-TN are potential biomarkers in epilepsy and drug-refractory epilepsy and would be useful for diagnosis.