Résumé
Objective To provide supportive evidences for the diagnosis of primary major depres-sive disorder (MDD) by analyzing the alterations of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1α, IL-6, IL-18, TNF-αas well as the total complement activity (CH50) in serum samples.Methods Hamilton Depression Rating Scale ( HAMD) was used to rate the severity of depression with the patients who were diagnosed as primary MDD.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the levels of IL-1α, IL-6, IL-18 and TNF-αand the CH50 in serum samples from 49 patients and 40 healthy subjects .Results Pa-tients with MDD showed significantly different levels of IL-6, IL-18, TNF-αand CH50 in serum samples as compared with that in healthy subjects (P0.05).There were significant gender differ-ences with levels of IL-1αamong the patients with MDD (P0.05). Conclusion The changes of CH50 and certain proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, IL-18 and TNF-αmight be involved in the progression of MDD , suggesting the possibility of using them as indicators for the di-agnosis of MDD.