The plasma levels of interleukin-12 in schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar mania: effects of psychotropic drugs.
Interleukin-12 (IL-12) plays a key role in promoting T helper 1 (Th1) responses and subsequent cell-mediated immunity. Given the role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders, the dysregulation of IL-12 in these illnesses would be expected. We measured the plasma levels of IL-12 in 102 psychiatric patients (43 schizophrenia, 34 major depression and 25 bipolar disorder) and 85 normal controls. In addition, IL-12 levels of the patients were measured after an 8-week treatment to assess whether the levels were affected by medication. The IL-12 levels of the patient group with major depression were significantly higher than that of the control group, whereas no differences were found among the other groups. IL-12 values of the three patient groups decreased significantly after 8 weeks of treatment. These findings support the hypothesis that activation of the inflammatory response system and in particular of Th-1-like cells, is involved in the pathophysiology of major depression and that repeated administration of antidepressive and antipsychotic drugs may suppress IL-12 plasma concentrations in psychiatric patients.
Kim
Y-K
YK
Department of Psychiatry, Korea University Ansan Hospital, College of Medicine, Korea. yong-ku@korea.ac.kr
Suh
I-B
IB
Kim
H
H
Han
C-S
CS
Lim
C-S
CS
Choi
S-H
SH
Licinio
J
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018664:Interleukin-12 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000276:immunology
D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D018664:Interleukin-12