Table 3.
RRMS patients reveal a tendency of increased plasma ceramides compared to healthy controls.
| RRMS patients [n = 69] |
Healthy controls [n = 21] |
p-value | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mean | SD | median | mean | SD | median | ||
| C14:0 ceramide | 18.9 | 8.1 | 17.3 | 15.5 | 7.1 | 14.0 | 0.111 |
| C16:0 ceramide | 650.9 | 198.0 | 635.1 | 573.2 | 152.2 | 550.4 | 0.128 |
| C18:0 ceramide | 164.6 | 73.8 | 152.0 | 138.6 | 44.8 | 126.7 | 0.177 |
| C20:0 ceramide | 385.1 | 161.3 | 370.7 | 335.1 | 104.7 | 323.6 | 0.227 |
| C24:0 ceramide | 6936.6 | 2165.2 | 6707.6 | 6143.7 | 1695.6 | 6178.5 | 0.128 |
| C24:1 ceramide | 1560.4 | 496.5 | 1513.6 | 1187.6 | 452.2 | 1129.5 | 0.003 |
| C16:0 sphinganine | 31.5 | 15.4 | 29.3 | 24.1 | 12.6 | 24.5 | 0.042 |
| C18:0 sphinganine | 37.3 | 28.0 | 32.6 | 26.9 | 13.7 | 23.0 | 0.143 |
| C24:0 sphinganine | 368.7 | 172.6 | 335.1 | 307.9 | 118.5 | 268.7 | 0.100 |
| C24:1 sphinganine | 249.6 | 111.4 | 222.3 | 206.5 | 80.3 | 181.2 | 0.141 |
| S1P | 312.3 | 111.6 | 298.8 | 347.8 | 78.1 | 335.4 | 0.178 |
| dhS1P | 57.2 | 27.5 | 50.2 | 40.1 | 13.2 | 39.4 | 0.006 |
Data are shown as mean, SD, and median with p-values of Mann–Whitney’s U or two-tailed t-tests with significant p-values (p ≤ 0.05) highlighted in bold. dhS1P, sphinganine-1-phosphate; RRMS, relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis; S1P, sphingosine-1-phosphate.