Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Cytokine Balance in Major Depression: Effect of Sertraline Therapy

Sutcigil, Levent; Oktenli, Cagatay; Musabak, Ugur; Bozkurt, Ali; Cansever, Adnan; Uzun, Ozcan; Sanisoglu, S. Yavuz; Yesilova, Zeki; Ozmenler, Nahit; Ozsahin, Aytekin; Sengul, Ali

doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/76396

Journal of Immunology Research

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Clinical Study | Open Access

Volume 2007 | Article ID 076396 | https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/76396

Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Cytokine Balance in Major Depression: Effect of Sertraline Therapy

Levent Sutcigil,¹Cagatay Oktenli,²Ugur Musabak,³Ali Bozkurt,¹Adnan Cansever,¹Ozcan Uzun,¹S. Yavuz Sanisoglu,⁴Zeki Yesilova,⁵Nahit Ozmenler,¹Aytekin Ozsahin,¹and Ali Sengul³

Academic Editor: Ethan M. Shevach

Received23 Jun 2007

Revised28 Sept 2007

Accepted28 Nov 2007

Published20 Jan 2008

Abstract

The specific associations between antidepressant treatment and alterations in the levels of cytokines remain to be elucidated. In this study, we aimed to explore the role of IL-2, IL-4, IL-12, TNF-α, TGF-β1, and MCP-1 in major depression and to investigate the effects of sertraline therapy. Cytokine and chemokine levels were measured at the time of admission and 8 weeks after sertraline treatment. Our results suggest that the proinflammatory cytokines (IL-2, IL-12, and TNF-α) and MCP-1 were significantly higher, whereas anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 and TGF-β1 were significantly lower in patients with major depression than those of healthy controls. It seems likely that the sertraline therapy might have exerted immunomodulatory effects through a decrease in the proinflammatory cytokine IL-12 and an increase in the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 and TGF-β1. In conclusion, our results indicate that Th1-, Th2-, and Th3-type cytokines are altered in the depressed patients and some of them might have been corrected by sertraline treatment.

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Copyright

Copyright © 2007 Levent Sutcigil et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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