Post-traumatic str
ess disord
er (PTSD) is a syndrom
e r
esulting from
exposur
e to a s
ev
er
e traumatic
ev
ent that pos
es thr
eat
en
ed d
eath or injury and produc
es int
ens
e f
ear and h
elpl
essn
ess. Th
e n
eural structur
es implicat
ed in PTSD d
ev
elopm
ent b
elong to th
e limbic syst
em, an important r
egion for
emotional proc
essing. Brain-d
eriv
ed n
eurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a n
eurotrophin that s
erv
es as survival factor for s
el
ect
ed populations of c
entral n
ervous syst
em (CNS) n
eurons and plays a rol
e in th
e limbic syst
em by r
egulating synaptic plasticity, m
emory proc
ess
es and b
ehavior. Impair
ed BDNF production in th
e brain can l
ead to a vari
ety of CNS dysfunctions including symptoms associat
ed with PTSD. How
ev
er, so far f
ew
er studi
es hav
e inv
estigat
ed this n
eurotrophin in pati
ents with PTSD. Furth
ermor
e, giv
en th
e multipl
e rol
e of BDNF in various CNS disord
ers, it cannot b
e exclud
ed that traumatic
ev
ents p
er s
e may influ
enc
e n
eurotrophin l
ev
els, without a dir
ect association to th
e PTSD syndrom
e.
To elucidate these issues, in this study we analyzed BDNF serum levels in two groups of subjects: patients with trauma exposure who developed PTSD, and subjects with trauma exposure who did not develop PTSD. We found that BDNF serum levels were lower in PTSD patients as compared to related control subjects. Thus, these data suggest that BDNF might be involved in pathophysiology of PTSD and consequently therapeutic approaches aimed at restoring BDNF serum levels may be beneficial to this pathology.