Preliminary data suggest possible association between IL-32 expression level and time of MS attack

IL-32 and TNFα are important cytokines in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. IL-32 has not been previously studied with respect to MS. Here, we report IL-32 and TNFα transcript levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of MS patients and control individuals by real time PCR. A significant difference in IL-32 and TNFα mRNA levels of patients as compared to controls was not observed. However, patients with more recent attacks had highly significant increased levels of IL-32 mRNAs. As the sample size was small, this potentially relevant preliminary observation needs to be corroborated using a larger number of patients with well defined clinical features.