CSF levels of cytokines in neuro-Behçet's disease

Neurological manifestations of Behçet's disease (neuro-Behçet's disease) present in 5-30% of patients. Although cytokines play a pivotal role in pathogenesis of Behçet's disease, published studies about the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of cytokines in neuro-Behçet's disease are scanty.

Nine patients with active parenchymal, one patient with non-parenchymal neuro-Behçet's disease, six patients with headache attributed to Behçet's disease, 13 patients with viral meningitis, and 19 healthy controls were recruited. Interleukin 6, 8, 10, tumor necrotic factor-alpha, and interferon-gamma were measured in the CSF using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method.

Patients with viral meningitis had significantly higher levels of all investigated cytokines except for interferon-gamma in comparison with the patients with parenchymal neuro-Behçet's disease, headache attributed to Behçet's disease and controls (P values <0.05). CSF interleukin 6 was significantly higher in patients with parenchymal neuro-Behçet's disease in comparison with the controls (P=0.025). CSF levels of investigated cytokines had no significant difference between patients with headache attributed to Behçet's disease and controls (P values >0.05). Patients with headache attributed to BD and patients with parenchymal NBD had no significant difference in measured cytokines (P values >0.05).

In contrast to some previous studies, our investigation showed loss of analogy between CSF cytokine profiles of patients with parenchymal neuro-Behçet's disease and viral meningitis. Also we postulated a crucial role for interleukin 6 in immunopathogenesis of neuro-Behçet's disease.