Peripheral blood AKAP7 expression as an early marker for lymphocyte-mediated post-stroke blood brain barrier disruption

O’Connell, Grant C.; Treadway, Madison B.; Petrone, Ashley B.; Tennant, Connie S.; Lucke-Wold, Noelle; Chantler, Paul D.; Barr, Taura L.

lice variants may be more diagnostically robust than the expression levels of total AKAP7 alone. PKA-binding AKAP7 isoforms are highly expressed on lymphocytes in peripheral blood. To gain further insight into the possible functional role of AKAP7 in the context of post-stroke BBB disruption, we next looked to determine the cellular source of AKAP7 in the peripheral immune system. qRT-PCR was used to measure the expression levels of the AKAP7 splice variants in RNA extracted from isolated leukocyte subpopulations obtained from the peripheral blood of three healthy donors using immuno-magnetic negative selection. Expression levels of the PKA-binding AKAP7 isoforms appeared to be significantly higher on cells of lymphoid origin ( Fig. 6 ), leading us to hypothesize that AKAP7 levels may serve as a marker of post-stroke lymphocyte trafficking specifically.