C. Song et al., CHANGES IN IMMUNOGLOBULIN, COMPLEMENT AND ACUTE-PHASE PROTEIN-LEVELS IN THE DEPRESSED-PATIENTS AND NORMAL CONTROLS, Journal of affective disorders, 30(4), 1994, pp. 283-288
Recently, several authors have reported that immunoglobulin IgM, compl
ement C3c, complement C4, and positive acute phase proteins (e.g., hap
toglobin, alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein and alpha(1)-antitrypsin) were si
gnificantly increased, while negative acute phase proteins (e.g., albu
min and transferrin), were decreased in depressed patients. In the pre
sent study, the levels of the immunoglobulin IgM, complement C3c, C4,
alpha(1)-antitrypsinand haptoglobin were found to be significantly inc
reased in 20 unipolar depressed patients compared to healthy controls.
The concentrations of total protein and albumin were significantly re
duced in these patients. The concentrationsof alpha(1)-protein, (which
is related to alpha(1)-antitrypsin), and alpha(2)-protein (which rela
ted to haptoglobin), were also significantly elevated in unipolar depr
essed patients. The results suggest that unipolar depression is associ
ated with an acute phase response, which is possibly caused by changes
in cytokines and corticosteroid secretion in depressedpatients.