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An fMRI study of cytokine-induced depressed mood and social pain: the role of sex differences.

ABSTRACT: Although research has demonstrated a relationship between proinflammatory cytokine activity and depressive symptoms, the neurocognitive processes underlying this relationship have remained largely unexplored. Here, we examined the effect of proinflammatory cytokine activation on the neural correlates of socially painful experience and associated depressed mood. Participants received either low-dose endotoxin or placebo through intravenous injection. Levels of the proinflammatory cytokine, IL-6, were repeatedly assessed through hourly blood draws; self-reported depressed mood was assessed hourly as well. Two hours post-injection, participants completed a neuroimaging session in which they were socially excluded during an online ball-tossing game. Replicating previous research, individuals exposed to endotoxin, compared to placebo, showed increases in IL-6 levels and depressed mood. Although there were no meaningful differences between the endotoxin and control groups in neural responses to social exclusion, there were sex differences in the relationships between IL-6 increases and neural responses to exclusion among subjects exposed to endotoxin. Among females, but not males, exposed to endotoxin, increases in IL-6 were associated with increases in social pain-related neural activity (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula) that mediated the relationship between IL-6 increases and depressed mood increases. Implications of these sex differences in the neural correlates of cytokine-associated depressed mood and social pain are discussed.

SUBMITTER: Eisenberger NI

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2733873 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An fMRI study of cytokine-induced depressed mood and social pain: the role of sex differences.

Eisenberger Naomi I NI Inagaki Tristen K TK Rameson Lian T LT Mashal Nehjla M NM Irwin Michael R MR

NeuroImage 20090417 3

Although research has demonstrated a relationship between proinflammatory cytokine activity and depressive symptoms, the neurocognitive processes underlying this relationship have remained largely unexplored. Here, we examined the effect of proinflammatory cytokine activation on the neural correlates of socially painful experience and associated depressed mood. Participants received either low-dose endotoxin or placebo through intravenous injection. Levels of the proinflammatory cytokine, IL-6, ...[more]

PMID: 19376240

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Project description:Inflammation plays a significant role in the pathophysiology of depression. However, not all individuals exposed to inflammatory challenge develop depression, and identifying those at risk is necessary to develop targeted monitoring, prevention, and treatment strategies. Within a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study (n = 115), we examined whether leukocyte transcriptome profiles predicted inflammation-induced depressed mood in volunteers who received low-dose intravenous endotoxin (n = 58; aged 18-50). At baseline, transcription factor (TF) activities were assessed using genome-wide transcriptional profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells and promoter-based bioinformatic analyses. Then, participants were administered endotoxin. Self-reported depressed mood was assessed using the Profile of Mood States. Based on extant studies linking transcriptional profiles to depressive disorder, we examined whether post-endotoxin depressed mood is predicted by baseline activity of TFs related to immune activation, sympathetic activation, and glucocorticoid insensitivity: respectively, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB), cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB), and glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Twenty-one participants (36%) experienced an increase in depressed mood from baseline to 2 h post endotoxin, when depressive response peaks. Bioinformatics analyses controlling for age, sex, ethnicity, body mass index, and physical sickness response revealed that post-endotoxin depressed mood was predicted by increased baseline activity of TFs related to inflammation (NF-kB) and beta-adrenergic signaling (CREB) and by decreased activity of GR-related TFs (P's < 0.001). Inflammation-induced depressed mood is predicted by peripheral transcriptome profiles related to immune activation, sympathetic activation, and glucocorticoid insensitivity. With further replication, these stress-related molecular profiles could be used for a novel genomic approach for identifying individuals at high-risk for the inflammatory subtype of depression.

Project description:Inflammation has an important physiological influence on mood and behavior. Kynurenine metabolism is hypothesized to be a pathway linking inflammation and depressed mood, in part through the impact of kynurenine metabolites on glutamate neurotransmission in the central nervous system. This study evaluated whether the circulating concentrations of kynurenine and related compounds change acutely in response to an inflammatory challenge (endotoxin administration) in a human model of inflammation-induced depressed mood, and whether such metabolite changes relate to mood change. Adults (n = 115) were randomized to receive endotoxin or placebo. Mood (Profile of Mood States), plasma cytokine (interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α) and metabolite (kynurenine, tryptophan, kynurenic acid, quinolinic acid) concentrations were repeatedly measured before the intervention, and at 2 and 6 h post-intervention. Linear mixed models were used to evaluate relationships between mood, kynurenine and related compounds, and cytokines. Kynurenine, kynurenic acid, and tryptophan (but not quinolinic acid) concentrations changed acutely (p's all <0.001) in response to endotoxin as compared to placebo. Neither kynurenine, kynurenic acid nor tryptophan concentrations were correlated at baseline with cytokine concentrations, but all three were significantly correlated with cytokine concentrations over time in response to endotoxin. Quinolinic acid concentrations were not correlated with cytokine concentrations either before or following endotoxin treatment. In those who received endotoxin, kynurenine (p = 0.049) and quinolinic acid (p = 0.03) positively correlated with depressed mood, although these findings would not survive correction for multiple testing. Changes in tryptophan and kynurenine pathway metabolites did not mediate the relationship between cytokines and depressed mood. Further work is necessary to clarify the pathways leading from inflammation to depressed mood in humans.

Dataset Information

An fMRI study of cytokine-induced depressed mood and social pain: the role of sex differences.

Publications

An fMRI study of cytokine-induced depressed mood and social pain: the role of sex differences.

Similar Datasets

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