Stress-induced pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine concentrations in female PTSD and depressive patients

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Alterations of the hypothalamus pituitary-axis on one hand and heightened rates of somatic diseases and mortality on the other hand are consistently found for PTSD and MDD patients. A possible link between these factors might be the immune system, in particular pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. A 'low-grade inflammation' in PTSD and MDD patients was found, whereas the influence of acute stress and the role of anti-inflammatory cytokines was rarely examined. In this study, 17 female PTSD patients participated in the Trier social stress test while serum cytokine levels (IL-6, IL-10) were assessed. Cytokine levels of PTSD patients were compared with levels of female depressive patients (n = 18) and female healthy controls (n = 18). Group differences were assessed using a 3 (group) x 8 (time: -15, -1, +1, +10, +20, +30, +45, +60 min) ANCOVA for repeated measures with baseline values as covariates. There was no group difference regarding IL-6 levels (p = 0.920) but PTSD patients showed significantly higher levels of IL-10 compared with depressive patients (p < 0.001, d = 0.16) and healthy controls (p = 0.001, d = 0.38). Under acute stress, PTSD patients did not show the widely found elevated IL-6 levels but showed an increase of anti-inflammatory IL-10. Therefore, acute stress seems to promote an imbalance of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine levels in PTSD and might indicate a hyperreactive immune response. This should be considered in future studies to further understand the role of the immune system as a link between stress response and somatic diseases.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)158
JournalTranslational psychiatry
Volume12
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 14 Apr 2022
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMedCentral PMC9010431
Scopus 85128323728
unpaywall 10.1038/s41398-022-01921-1
Mendeley b66eceb7-8946-318f-93e5-a1260952c57c

Keywords

Keywords

  • Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Cytokines, Female, Humans, Interleukin-10, Interleukin-6, Male, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic