Fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis: is it related to pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines?

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the pathophysiological role of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in primary multiple sclerosis-related fatigue.

METHODS

Fatigued and non-fatigued patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) were recruited and their cytokine profiles compared. Patients with secondary fatigue were excluded. Fatigue was assessed with the self-reported Checklist Individual Strength (CIS20r), subscale fatigue. A CIS20r fatigue cut-off score of 35 was applied to differentiate between non-fatigued (CIS20r fatigue ≤34) and fatigued (CIS20r fatigue ≥35) patients with MS. Blood was collected to determine the serum concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12p70, IL-17, TNFα, and IFN-γ) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, and IL-13). We controlled for the confounding effect of age, gender, duration of MS, disease severity, type of MS, and use of immunomodulatory drugs.

RESULTS

Similar cytokine levels were observed between MS patients with (n = 21) and without fatigue (n = 14). Adjusted multiple regression analyses showed a single significant positive relationship, that of IL-6 with CIS20r fatigue score. The explained variance of the IL-6 model was 21.1%, once adjusted for the confounding effect of age.

CONCLUSIONS

The pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) may play a role in the pathophysiology of primary fatigue in patients with MS.

BACKGROUND

ISRCTN69520623, ISRCTN58583714, and ISRCTN82353628.