Evidence of skull bone translocator protein overexpression linked to multiple sclerosis progression - PubMed

3 days ago

Skull bone marrow contributes to brain immune homeostasis via skull-meningeal channels, enabling immune cell trafficking between skull bone and dura mater.
In multiple sclerosis (MS), autoreactive T cells migrate to bone marrow, promoting myeloid differentiation and disease progression.
MR-PET with ¹¹C-PBR28 radioligand was used to study translocator protein (TSPO) expression in the skull bone of MS patients.
65 MS patients (46 relapsing-remitting, 19 secondary progressive) and 26 healthy controls underwent ¹¹C-PBR28 MR-PET scans.
Secondary progressive MS patients showed widespread elevation in skull TSPO signal compared to healthy controls and relapsing-remitting MS patients.
Elevated skull TSPO signal correlated with more severe neurological disability, higher EDSS scores, and reduced white matter volume.
Skull TSPO signal and T2-hyperintense white matter lesion volume were independently associated with disability in multivariable regression analysis.
Findings suggest skull bone marrow plays a role in MS disease processes and could be a novel radiological marker and therapeutic target.

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