Quantitative evaluation of CXCL8 and its receptors (CXCR1 and CXCR2) gene expression in Iranian patients with multiple sclerosis.

CXCL8 and its receptors (CXCR1 and CXCR2) play important roles in CNS development, neuronal survival, modulation of excitability, and neuroimmune response. The aim of this study is to evaluate gene expression of CXCL8 and CXCR1/CXCR2 in peripheral blood cells (PBCs) of Iranian patients with relapsing remitting (RR) form of Multiple sclerosis (MS). We explored the mRNA expression of CXCL8 and its receptors in PBCs of 49 RR-MS patients in remitting status and 60 healthy controls by quantitative Real-Time PCR. Median expression of CXCL8 mRNA in peripheral blood of MS patients decreased more than 3-fold compared to control group (p < 0.001), while there were not significant differences in CXCR1 and CXCR2 gene expression between MS patients and healthy subjects (p = 0.159 and p = 0.248, respectively). There was a significant negative correlation of CXCR2 expression with EDSS (rs = -0.432, p = 0.004). It appears that decreased expression of CXCL8 may lead to a raised risk of MS.