The Correlations Between Plasma Fibrinogen With Amyloid-Beta and Tau Levels in Patients With Alzheimer's Disease

Recent studies show that fibrinogen plays a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), which may be crucial to neurovascular damage and cognitive impairment. However, there are few clinical studies on the relationship between fibrinogen and AD. 59 C-11-PiB-PET diagnosed AD patients and 76 age- and gender-matched cognitively normal controls were included to analyze the correlation between plasma beta-amyloid (A beta) and tau levels with fibrinogen levels. 35 AD patients and 76 controls with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were included to further analyze the correlation between CSF A beta and tau levels with fibrinogen levels. In AD patients, plasma fibrinogen levels were positively correlated with plasma A beta 40 and A beta 42 levels, and negatively correlated with CSF A beta 42 levels. Besides, fibrinogen levels were positively correlated with CSF total tau (t-tau), and phosphorylated tau-181 (p-tau) levels and positively correlated with the indicators of A beta deposition in the brain, such as t-tau/A beta 42, p-tau/A beta 42 levels. In normal people, fibrinogen levels lack correlation with A beta and tau levels in plasma and CSF. This study suggests that plasma fibrinogen levels are positively correlated with A beta levels in the plasma and brain in AD patients. Fibrinogen may be involved in the pathogenesis of AD.