Altered release of chemokines by phagocytes from fibromyalgia patients: a pilot study

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome characterized by widespread chronic pain and is associated with elevated systemic inflammatory biomarkers, and an elevated innate cellular response. The aim of this study was to determine if fibromyalgia patients have altered ability to release pro-inflammatory chemokines by isolated neutrophils and monocytes. The study participants were women diagnosed with FM (n = 6) and a control group of healthy women (HW) (n = 6). Supernatant concentrations of eotaxin (CCL11), human macrophage-derived chemokine (MDC) (CCL22) and growth regulated-oncogene (GRO-α) (CXCL1) released by both monocytes and neutrophils either resting or stimulated by LPS were determined by ELISA and compared between the FM and HW groups. Both resting and activated monocytes from FM patients released more eotaxin, MDC and GRO-α than those from HW. However, there were no significant differences in the release of chemokines from neutrophils of FM patients and the ones from healthy women. In conclusion, monocytes from women with FM are deregulated, releasing higher amounts of eotaxin, MDC and GRO-α than healthy individuals. This fact does not occur in neutrophils from women with FM.