Association of circulating TNF-alpha and IL-6 with ageing and parkinsonism.
BACKGROUND
We propose that the increase in TNF-alpha and IL-6 in the brain in idiopathic parkinsonism is in response to a peripheral immune/ inflammatory process, so ubiquitous as to be responsible for the resemblance between ageing and parkinsonism.


METHODS
Circulating cytokine was measured in 78 subjects with idiopathic parkinsonism and 140 without, aged 30 to 90 years, all obeying inclusion/exclusion criteria.


RESULTS
Serum TNF-alpha increased (P<0.0001) by 1.37 (95% CI 0.75, 2.00)% x y(-1), IL-6 by 2.63 (1.75, 3.52) (P<0.0005). TNF-alpha appeared elevated in parkinsonians whose postural and psychomotor responses were abnormal, being suppressed where they were normal: trends which contrasted with those in controls (P = 0.015 and 0.05, respectively). Parkinsonism appeared (P = 0.08) to have an effect on IL-6, equivalent to that of >10 years of ageing (28(-3, 69)%), but was not immediately related to between-subject differences in performance.


CONCLUSIONS
Ageing and pathogenetic insult may be confounded, age being a progression, not a risk, factor.
Therapeutics in the Elderly, Research Group, The Hillingdon Hospital Postgraduate and Research Centre, Uxbridge, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK.
R J
RJ
Dobbs
A
A
Charlett
A G
AG
Purkiss
S M
SM
Dobbs
C
C
Weller
D W
DW
Peterson
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001790:Blood Physiological Phenomena; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D017628:Microglia / Q000378:metabolism; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000378:metabolism*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism*
D015850:Interleukin-6; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha