J Korean Orthop Res Soc.  2007 Apr;10(1):35-43.

Expression of Ubiquitin and Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule in the Muscles of Spastic Cerebral Palsy Patients

• Jung SH
• Hahn SB
• Kong SY
• Kim HW

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study was performed to examine the histopathologic changes of muscles and the expression patterns of ubiquitin and N-CAM (neural cell adhesion molecule) in accordance with cerebral palsy patient's spasticity.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We studied thirteen specimens from seven patients with spastic cerebral palsy, five patients suspected to have neuromuscular diseases, and one normal person. We performed the routine histologic procedures, the reverse transcriptional polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and immunostaining.
RESULTS
There were no disease-specific abnormalities related with the degree of spasticity on histopathologic evaluation. However, in the cerebral palsy patients, the degree of spasticity seems to have positive correlations with the expression of ubiquitin gene and negative correlations with the expression of N-CAM gene. On the other hand, in the immunostaining procedures, the reactions to ubiquitin protein were all negative and reactions to N-CAM protein were strongly positive only in two hereditary motor sensory neuropathy patients.
CONCLUSION
The results of our study seem to be caused by multiple mechanisms. If more studies about the changes after the transcription of ubiquitin and N-CAM genes are performed, these results can be applied to the research and treatment of cerebral palsy on molecular biologic aspects.

Keyword

Cerebral palsy; Spasticity; Ubiquitin; Neural cell adhesion molecule

MeSH Terms

Cell Adhesion
Cerebral Palsy*
Hand
Humans
Muscle Spasticity*
Muscles*
Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules*
Neuromuscular Diseases
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Ubiquitin*
Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules
Ubiquitin