Concentration of soluble form of hepatocyte growth factor receptor in cerebrospinal fluid and serum of patients with bacterial and viral meningitis

Background and objectives: C-Met is a proto-oncogene that encodes a proteinknown as hepatocyte growth factor receptor (HGFR). The HGF receptor possessestyrosine -kinase activity and it is essential for embryonic development, woundhealing and cancer. Many proteins are proteolytically released from the surface bya process known as ectodomain shedding. Shedding occurs under normalphysiologic conditions and can be increased in certain pathologies. C-Met can beseen among many receptors for which ectodomain shedding has been shown. Theaim of this study was to determine the concentration of soluble c-Met in thecerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum samples of patients with viral and bacterialmeningitis.Material and Methods: in this study, 75 CSF and serum samples of patients withbacterial meningitis, 71 with viral meningitis and 82 normal controls wereinvestigated. The soluble c-Met concentration was determined by enzyme linkedimmunosorbent assay (ELISA).Result: the amount of soluble c-met in CSF of patients with bacterial meningitis( 83.91±5.50), viral meningitis ( 80.41±4.71) and control group ( 22.66±3.39)are compared with that in serum of patients with bacterial meningitis (561.58±25.87), viral meningitis ( 550.50 ±34.34) and control group (256.25±18.55). There is significant increase in the CSF and serum’s soluble c-Met expression in the patients with meningitis, in comparison with control group.Conclusion: The data presented here indicate that soluble c-Met is a constantcomponent of human serum and CSF, but it can not be used for differentiatingbacterial meningitis from viral meningitis.Key words: Soluble c-Met, concentration, cerebrospinal fluid, serum, meningi