Researchers at King’s College London announced Wednesday that a new study found that depression and the risk of depression are associated with different inflammatory proteins in boys and girls. File photo: Sasint/Pixabay
September 13 (UPI) — Researchers at King’s College London announced Wednesday that a new study has found that depression and its risk are associated with different inflammatory proteins in boys and girls.
The researchers’ study on gender differences in the relationship between inflammatory proteins and depression was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Researchers say that when inflammation occurs in the body, proteins called cytokines are released into the bloodstream. Previous studies have shown that high levels of cytokines are associated with depression in adults, but the relationship in young people was unclear.
Zuzanna Zakowska, postdoctoral fellow at King’s College and lead author of the study, said: “This is the first study to show differences between boys and girls in the patterns of inflammation associated with the risk and development of adolescent depression. It’s research.”
“We found that the severity of depressive symptoms was associated with increased levels of the cytokine interleukin-2 in boys, but with increased levels of interleukin-6 in girls. We found that adolescent girls are more likely to develop depression than boys, and that the disorder follows a different course depending on gender.”Our findings therefore explain why these We hope that this will allow us to better understand why differences exist, and ultimately help develop more targeted treatments for the different biological sexes. ”
To measure inflammation, the researchers measured cytokine levels in the blood of 75 boys and 75 girls between the ages of 14 and 16. The 150 participants from Brazil were divided into three equal groups. This group had a low risk of depression and was a non-depressed group. People who are at high risk for depression but are not depressed. People currently experiencing major depressive disorder (MDD).
The researchers said the measurements show that there are sex differences between individual inflammatory proteins associated with depression in adolescents.
High levels of the cytokine interleukin-2 (IL-2) were associated with both increased risk of depression and severity of depressive symptoms in boys, but not in girls.
They also found that higher levels of IL-6 were associated with greater depression severity in girls, but not in boys. Among boys, IL-2 levels were higher in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group, and even higher in those diagnosed with depression.
Valeria Mondelli, clinical professor of psychoneuroimmunology at King’s College, said: “Our findings suggest that inflammation and biology may combine to contribute to the risk of depression. “I am doing so,” he said.
“We know that adolescence is a critical period when many mental disorders first develop, and we are learning which inflammatory proteins are associated with depression and how this plays out in boys and girls. We hope that by identifying what is different in life, our findings can pave the way to understanding what happens during this critical time of life. ”
Modeli said the study highlights the importance of considering the combined influence of biological, psychological and social factors to understand the mechanisms underlying depression. . ”
This study was part of the IDEA (Identification of Depression in Early Adolescence) project funded by MQ Mental Health Research.
