Authors:	Renner, Vanessa Schellong, Julia Bornstein, Stefan Petrowski, Katja
Title:	Stress-induced pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine concentrations in female PTSD and depressive patients
Online publication date:	9-Feb-2023
Year of first publication:	2022
Language:	english
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.
DDC:	610 Medizin 610 Medical sciences
Institution:	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Department:	FB 04 Medizin
Place:	Mainz
ROR:	https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI:	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8778
Version:	Published version
Publication type:	Zeitschriftenaufsatz
License:	CC BY
Information on rights of use:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Journal:	Translational Psychiatry 12
Pages or article number:	158
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
Publisher place:	London
Issue date:	2022
ISSN:	2158-3188
Publisher DOI:	10.1038/s41398-022-01921-1
Appears in collections:	DFG-491381577-G