title: Serial mitogen-stimulated cytokine production from continuously ill patients with schizophrenia.
abstract: Aberrant activation of the immune system has been implicated in an increasingly large number of disease states and can influence cognition, mood, and memory. There is a long and controversial history of reports of immune activation associated with schizophrenia. In this study, we measured mitogen-stimulated cytokine levels serially in 100 medication-stabilized continuously ill subjects with schizophrenia and compared and contrasted them with mitogen-stimulated cytokine levels from 51 normal volunteers. The subjects with schizophrenia had consistently higher mitogen-stimulated IL-2 levels and lower IL-6 levels than the normal volunteers. These effects could not be explained by medications, smoking, or other clinical variables. We conclude that continuously symptomatic medication-stabilized subjects with schizophrenia have a mitogen-stimulated cytokine expression pattern that is suggestive of ongoing immune activation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA. mark.rapaport@cshs.org
authors.forename: Mark H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Rapaport
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bresee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008934:Mitogens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D008934:Mitogens