Who can tell me about the PAI-1 test? What does it indicate relative to Lyme and other TBDs?
Posted by thomasx (Member # 13431) on :
Anyone?
Posted by tcw (Member # 15698) on :
The PAI-1 measures levels of that signalling protein. Increased levels of PAI-1 seem to correlate with increased risk for thrombosis (blood clots).
Most of the stuff I could find relative to Bb and PAI-1 was in vitro studies - it seems that Bb may increase the expression of PAI-1 and that mechanism may help Bb invade host cells.
I am not sure that measuring PAI-1 would have much clinical relevance - PAI-1 seems to correlate with typical inflammatory cytokine levels, obesity, etc.
Can you share a bit more background on the reasoning behind a PAI-1 test?
Posted by thomasx (Member # 13431) on :
That's what I'm trying to figure out. I'll have to ask the doc why it was ordered. Stay posted.. won't see til mid January.
If you google "pai-1 lyme" you'll see a number of journal articles(abstracts mostly) that are way beyond my comprehension. Perhaps you can understand what they're conveying?
Posted by tcw (Member # 15698) on :
My understanding is pretty limited too, but as far as I can make sense of those abstracts, they say:
Bb (the bacteria that causes Lyme) gets into your bloodstream. To escape from the blood vessels and into other tissues, it needs to break through cell "walls". To do that, it attracts a chemical in your blood that "sticks" to the outside of the bacteria (OspA binds plasminogen). When this chemical is activated in your blood, it can work to dissolve certain tissues such as blood clots. It also can be used by the bacteria to "dissolve" portions of the blood vessel lining and other cell "walls" so the bacteria can move outside the blood and into cells.
Your body regulates the amount of activated chemical in your system by several ways, one of which is the production of PAI-1 (Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1). As far as I can tell most of the work with Bb and plasminogen binding has been done in test tubes, I am not sure what a blood test on a patient would indicate.