Effects of experimentally induced panic attacks on neuroimmunological markers.

Since little is known concerning regulation of immunological parameters in rapid changing psychiatric states like panic attacks, we measured cytokines at different time points in healthy subjects, which underwent experimental panic induction using the CCK-4 paradigm. Apart from a challenge related IL-6 increase, we could not observe any changes of neuroimmunological markers in relation to acute anxiety with regard to time and group. Herein we conducted for the first time a new approach to immunological research in panic disorder, suggesting immune changes are more related to long term disease stress.

Lack of association of the CD14/C-159T polymorphism with susceptibility and serological activity parameters of rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: CD14, the monocyte receptor for lipopolysaccharides (LPS), is an important mediator of inflammatory processes. As the T-159C exchange in the promotor of the CD14 gene was reported to lead to enhanced CD14 expression, this could be a new susceptibility gene for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We investigated whether this single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) serves as a risk factor for disease development or has any influence on serological activity parameters of RA or soluble CD14 (sCD14) levels. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 130 patients with RA, diagnosed according to the revised American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, and 130 healthy subjects, all Caucasians, were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Genotype frequencies were compared by chi2 analysis. RESULTS: Forty (31%) patients vs. 39 (30%) controls were genotyped CC; 71 (55%) vs. 67 (52%) were heterozygous, and 19 (15%) vs. 24 (19%) showed the TT genotype (p = 0.7). Accordingly, the allele frequency was equally distributed (p = 0.8). There was also no significant difference in genotype distribution between subgroups of patients categorized according to serological activity parameters and sCD14 levels. CONCLUSION: We found no association between the CD14/C-159T polymorphism and increased risk for the development of RA or serological disease activity parameters or sCD14 levels.