Objective: To investigate significance of Nogo-A in atrophic muscle fibers in diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Methods: Forty cases which were diagnosed definitely by clinical, pathological or DNA analysis were included. All of the cases underwent muscle biopsies in order to carry out Nogo-A immunostaining.
Results: Nogo-A expression was detected in the atrophic muscle fibers but in either neurogenic disease or myogenic disease, the atrophic muscle fibers demonstrated expression of Nogo-A. As compared with the stainings of NADH-TR and ATPase, it was showed that Nogo-A positive fibers were mainly type I fibers.
Conclusion: Our results show that the presence of Nogo-A in diseased human muscle biopsies is not limited to ALS, therefore it cannot be the standard for ALS diagnosis.