Three new studies confirm the roles of two long-suspected
factors in the development and perpetuation of ALS. Inflammation
is a set of biochemical changes brought about by the immune
system, while oxidative stress occurs when an excess of
electrically charged, oxygen-containing molecules damage DNA and
other cellular substances. Robert Brown, director of the MDA/ALS
Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, was among
the authors of a study of inflammation published in the Jan. 15
issue of Physiological Genomics. The researchers looked at
postmortem samples of spinal cord tissue. They found a definite
"pro-inflammatory state" in the ALS tissue compared with samples
from people who didn’t have ALS. They also found that genes
involved in the inflammatory process in ALS were selectively
activated. (This finding doesn’t imply anything is wrong with
the structure of the genes; it means they’re "turned on" because
of the inflammatory process instead of being in their usual
"turned off" condition.) Stanley