Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 25, 2026

Quantitative Imaging of Lineage-specific Toll-like Receptor-mediated Signaling in Monocytes and Dendritic Cells from Small Samples of Human Blood
Published on: April 16, 2012
Association of circulating TNF-alpha and IL-6 with ageing and parkinsonism
R J Dobbs1, A Charlett, A G Purkiss
1Therapeutics in the Elderly, Research Group, The Hillingdon Hospital Postgraduate and Research Centre, Uxbridge, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK.
Introduction:
We propose that the increase in TNF-alpha and IL-6 in the brain in idiopathic parkinsonism is in response to a peripheral immune/ inflammatory process, so ubiquitous as to be responsible for the resemblance between ageing and parkinsonism.
Methods:
Circulating cytokine was measured in 78 subjects with idiopathic parkinsonism and 140 without, aged 30 to 90 years, all obeying inclusion/exclusion criteria.
Results:
Serum TNF-alpha increased (P<0.0001) by 1.37 (95% CI 0.75, 2.00)% x y(-1), IL-6 by 2.63 (1.75, 3.52) (P<0.0005). TNF-alpha appeared elevated in parkinsonians whose postural and psychomotor responses were abnormal, being suppressed where they were normal: trends which contrasted with those in controls (P = 0.015 and 0.05, respectively). Parkinsonism appeared (P = 0.08) to have an effect on IL-6, equivalent to that of >10 years of ageing (28(-3, 69)%), but was not immediately related to between-subject differences in performance.
Conclusion:
Ageing and pathogenetic insult may be confounded, age being a progression, not a risk, factor.
Related Concept Videos
Neural Regulation
Parkinson's Disease: Overview
T Cell Types and Functions
Th1 cells stimulate dendritic cells to express necessary co-stimulatory molecules on their surfaces for...
Parkinson Disease l: Introduction
Parkinson Disease ll: Pathophysiology
Alterations in Muscle Tone lll
