CSF levels of cytokines in neuro-Behçet's disease.
BACKGROUND
Neurological manifestations of Behçet's disease (neuro-Behçet's disease) present in 5-30% of patients. Although cytokines play a pivotal role in pathogenesis of Behçet's disease, published studies about the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of cytokines in neuro-Behçet's disease are scanty.


METHODS
Nine patients with active parenchymal, one patient with non-parenchymal neuro-Behçet's disease, six patients with headache attributed to Behçet's disease, 13 patients with viral meningitis, and 19 healthy controls were recruited. Interleukin 6, 8, 10, tumor necrotic factor-alpha, and interferon-gamma were measured in the CSF using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method.


RESULTS
Patients with viral meningitis had significantly higher levels of all investigated cytokines except for interferon-gamma in comparison with the patients with parenchymal neuro-Behçet's disease, headache attributed to Behçet's disease and controls (P values <0.05). CSF interleukin 6 was significantly higher in patients with parenchymal neuro-Behçet's disease in comparison with the controls (P=0.025). CSF levels of investigated cytokines had no significant difference between patients with headache attributed to Behçet's disease and controls (P values >0.05). Patients with headache attributed to BD and patients with parenchymal NBD had no significant difference in measured cytokines (P values >0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
In contrast to some previous studies, our investigation showed loss of analogy between CSF cytokine profiles of patients with parenchymal neuro-Behçet's disease and viral meningitis. Also we postulated a crucial role for interleukin 6 in immunopathogenesis of neuro-Behçet's disease.
Borhani Haghighi
A
A
Department of Neurology, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz 71345, Iran. borhanihaghighi@yahoo.com
Ittehadi
H
H
Nikseresht
A R
AR
Rahmati
J
J
Poorjahromi
S Ghaffari
SG
Pourabbas
B
B
Nazarinia
M A
MA
Habibagahi
Z
Z
Fattahi
M J
MJ
Ghaderi
A
A
D000328:Adult; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000145:classification / Q000209:etiology; D016207:Cytokines / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D016209:Interleukin-8 / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D008297:Male; D008587:Meningitis, Viral / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D012016:Reference Values; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D055815:Young Adult
D016207:Cytokines; D015850:Interleukin-6; D016209:Interleukin-8; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D016753:Interleukin-10; D007371:Interferon-gamma