Unchanged levels of interleukins, neopterin, interferon-gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with dementia of theAlzheimer type

Several histopathological studies suggest that amyloidogenesis in dementia of the Alzheimer type is accompanied by activated glia and glia-derived cyt okines, leading to chronic, self-propagating, cytokine-mediated molecular a nd cellular reactions. As studies regarding inflammatory changes in cerebro spinal fluid of patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type has been incon clusive, we set up a prospective study to assess cerebrospinal fluid levels of interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-6, interleukin-10, interleukin-12, solu ble interleukin-2 receptor, interferon-gamma, tumor necrosis factor-alpha a nd neopterin in 20 patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type and 20 age- and sex-matched controls. Comparing both groups, no significant difference s in concentrations and specific activities could be revealed. An additiona l 22 patients were included to enlarge the study population. No statistical ly significant differences were shown comparing patients (n=42) with the co ntrol group (n=20). We conclude that the immune-mediated inflammatory chang es found in histopathological studies are not reflected in cerebrospinal fl uid of patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type. Probably, cytokine pro duction appears very localized in the central nervous system, not allowing representative detection in cerebrospinal fluid. Further studies assessing cytokine levels in various regions of central ner vous system of patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type will be of inte rest to confirm this hypothesis. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.