Decreased sTNF-RI in migraine patients?

Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) have recently been found to have a pain-mediating function in addition to their immunological, proinflammatory function. According to the hypothesis of neurovascular inflammation in migraine, these two cytokines could contribute to migraine pain generation. We analysed IL-6 and its soluble receptors sIL-6R and sgp130 as well as TNF-alpha and its soluble receptor sTNF-RI in 27 migraine patients and eight headache-free controls. Migraine patients tended to have less sTNF-RI (794 +/- 158 pg/ml) than controls (945 +/- 137 pg/ml). No differences in cytokine concentrations were observed. If TNF-alpha plays a role in migraine physiopathology, migraine patients may lack sufficient antagonistic sTNF-RI to neutralize hyperalgesic TNF-alpha during a migraine attack.