우울증 환자에서 Acute Phase Plasma Proteins 농도 변화에 대한 예비 연구

A Preliminary Study on Disturbance of Acute Phase Plasma Proteins in Depressed Patients

Objects : Recently, a few reports have shown that severe depression may be associated with higher levels of positive acute phase proteins (APPs), such as haptoglobin(Hp), al-antitiypsin (alAT), ceruloplasm in(Cp) and lower levels of negative APPs (visceral proteins), such as album in (Alb) and transferrin (Tf). Elevated levels of positive A PPs and a drop in negative APPs constitute im portant indicators of acute and chronic inflammatory states. This may suggest that severe depression m ay be accom panied by an inflammatory response. This study was designed to investigate whether altered plasma concentrations of positive APPs and of negative A PPs reflect the state of depression. Methods : Positive A PPs such as Hp, alAT , Cp, complement component C3C and negative APPs such as Alb, Tf were determined in 13 depressed patients and age & sex matched 13 normal controls. APPs concentration of pretreatment was com pared with that of 6 weeks follow-up in order to investigate whether alteration of APPs is state-dependent In addition, correlation between APPs concentration and age, severity of illness was done. Results : 1) There was significant increase of al-antitrypsin level in depressed patients as com pared with norm al controls. 2) There were significant decrease of ceruloplasmin level and increase of transferrin level 6 weeks after treatment in depressed patients. 3) There were no statistically significant correlations between plasm a A PPs and age, HDRS, BDI scores and between percentile change of APPs and percentile change of HDRS, BDI scores. Conclusions : Our findings are compatible with the hypothesis that depression may be accompanied by inflammatory changes