title: Changes in cytokine and chemokine expression distinguish dysthymic disorder from major depression and healthy controls.
abstract: An important area of uncertainty is the inflammatory degree to which depression occurring as part of dysthymic disorder may differ from major depression. Using a 27-plex cytokine assay, we analyzed the serum of 12 patients with dysthymic disorder, 12 with major depression, and an age-, sex-, and body mass index-matched control group of 20 healthy volunteers. We observed that patients with dysthymic disorder exhibited aberrant cytokine and chemokine expression compared with healthy controls and patients with major depression. The levels of interferon-γ-induced protein 10 highly predicted dysthymic disorder. Network analyses revealed that in patients with dysthymic disorder, the vertices were more sparsely connected and adopted a more hub-like architecture, and the connections from neighboring vertices of interleukin 2 and eotaxin-1 increased. After treatment with the same antidepressant, there was no difference between dysthymic disorder and major depression regarding any of the cytokines or chemokines analyzed. For dysthymic disorder, changes in the levels of interferon-γ-induced protein 10 and macrophage inflammatory protein-1α correlated with depression improvement. The findings suggest that the cytokine milieu in dysthymic disorder differs either at the level of individual expression or in network patterns. Moreover, chemokines play an important role in driving the pathophysiology of dysthymic disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Beitou Branch, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Pei-Shen
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Neurology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Che-Hung
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Yen
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Chun-Yen
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: San-Yuan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Beitou Branch, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC; Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: lcsyfw@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Chih-Sung
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000494:pharmacology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D054413:Chemokine CCL11 / Q000097:blood / Q000187:drug effects; D054357:Chemokine CXCL10 / Q000097:blood / Q000187:drug effects; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood* / Q000187:drug effects; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D019263:Dysthymic Disorder / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D015415:Biomarkers; C515456:CCL11 protein, human; C114753:CXCL10 protein, human; D054413:Chemokine CCL11; D054357:Chemokine CXCL10; D016207:Cytokines
keywords: Cytokine network; Dysthymia; Eotaxin-1; Inflammation; Interferon-γ-induced protein 10