RESEARCH - Reduced levels of antiinflammatory cytoines in patients with chronic widespread pain

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Arthritis Rheum. 2006 Aug;54(8):2656-64.

Reduced levels of antiinflammatory cytokines in patients with chronic

widespread pain.

Julius-Maximilians Universitat, Wurzburg, Germany.

uceyler_n@...

OBJECTIVE: The term chronic widespread pain refers to a group of painful

diseases of poorly understood pathophysiology. One major subgroup is

fibromyalgia (FM), as defined by the criteria of the American College of

Rheumatology. Among other hypotheses, a potential pathophysiologic role of

cytokines in chronic widespread pain has been proposed. We undertook this

study to investigate whether cytokine profiles differ in patients with

chronic widespread pain and controls. METHODS: We analyzed cytokine

expression patterns in 40 patients with chronic widespread pain (26 of whom

had FM), 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls, and an additional 15

patients with chronic widespread pain who were recruited from a different

center. Expression of messenger RNA (mRNA) for interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-4,

IL-8, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha), and transforming growth

factor beta1 (TGFbeta1) in peripheral blood was analyzed using quantitative

real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Serum protein levels were

measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: We found

significantly lower relative gene expression (P < 0.0001 for IL-4; P = 0.03

for IL-10) and lower levels of serum protein concentrations (P < 0.0001 for

IL-4; P = 0.04 for IL-10) of the Th2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-10 in patients

with chronic widespread pain than in the control group. This finding was

corroborated in an additional group of 15 patients with chronic widespread

pain. There were no significant differences between the groups in levels of

mRNA for IL-2, IL-8, TNFalpha, or TGFbeta1. Protein data paralleled the

real-time PCR results.

CONCLUSION: Chronic widespread pain is associated with a lack of

antiinflammatory and analgesic Th2 cytokine activity, which may contribute

to its pathogenesis.

PMID: 16871547

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed & cmd=Retrieve & dopt=Abstra\

ctPlus & list_uids=16871547

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