Introduction: Parkinson’s disease is a cause of physical disability and impaired quality of life, and oxidative stress is central in the mechanisms of neural degeneration and cell death in the disease. The aim is to investigate the serum levels and relationship of some cytokines and biomarkers of oxidative stress in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Material and Methods: Forty patients with clinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease and forty age- and sex-matched apparently healthy controls were recruited for the study. Their venous blood were collected for the estimation of serum Tumour Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-α) and Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay method. Serum total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and total oxidative status (TOS) were photo metrically determined.

Results: The study showed that mean serum levels of TNF-α and TOS were significantly higher in patients, while serum TAC levels were significantly lower in the patients. There was a positive correlation between serum TNF-α and IFN-γ and both were found to be directly related to serum TOS but not with serum TAC.

Conclusion: The findings from this study suggested that TNF-α increases directly with the TOS levels in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Keywords: Cytokines; Oxidative stress; Parkinson’s disease.

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Kazeem Adebayo Oderinu

Department of Chemical Pathology, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile – Ife, Nigeria